


Everything Moves

by Jen_Kollic



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Established Relationship, F/F, Injury Recovery, Major Character Injury, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28215372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen_Kollic/pseuds/Jen_Kollic
Summary: Post-S3, pre-S4. Julia and Carmen's relationship has been quietly continuing in the background since Julia left ACME, with neither of them wanting (or knowing how) to label it. But a meeting with the Chief to try and salvage Team Red's potential alliance with ACME leads to some unforeseen and serious consequences when a VILE infiltrator makes an attempt on Carmen's life.(places the events of 'To Steal Or Not To Steal' between S2 and S3, will not be canon compliant with S4)
Relationships: Julia "Jules" Argent & Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep, Julia "Jules" Argent/Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep
Comments: 146
Kudos: 325





	1. Chapter 1

**Everything Moves  
  
**

_Stumble in, fight the spin_  
 _If you don’t you’re falling on your face again_  
 _Tumble down, roll around_  
 _You know that everything is moving now  
_ \- Bronze Radio Return, 'Everything Moves'  
 _  
_

"...continuing to investigate the reason for Braithwaite's apparent release from custody, but his whereabouts remain unknown at this time." The voice of the newsreader was silenced as Julia switched the television off. She sank back into the sofa with a deep, relieved sigh and thought about going back to bed. It was half past four in the morning in Poitiers, but she'd been running on adrenaline since the news alert on her phone had woken her nearly two hours ago. Seeing the headline that flashed up on the lock screen had been enough to startle her fully awake, and the accompanying photograph had made her spring out of bed and into the lounge to turn on the TV while her phone continued to chime with new alerts.

Setting the news feed to notify her of every story that mentioned Carmen Sandiego might have been a mistake.

The headline had been "Carmen Sandiego arrested in London" and the accompanying photo was of a familiar figure in the back of a British police van. Even stripped of her trademark hat and coat and with her face concealed behind her hair, Julia had recognised her immediately. It was definitely Carmen. Julia had fumbled the remote several times while frantically clicking through the channels to get to the British news station, dropping it twice, but had finally reached it... only to find that the face on the screen behind the newsreader wasn't Carmen at all, but Nigel Braithwaite - the deputy director of the British intelligence service. For a moment she'd thought he must have been behind Carmen's capture - which would explain why the story had hit the news so quickly, ACME would have been far more discreet - but as the bulletin recapped the story it appeared that Braithwaite had been the one arrested after all.

Somewhat bewildered by this turn of events, Julia had split her attention between the television and her phone, scrolling through pages of news reports and blog posts that were increasing by the second. The stories ranged from "Carmen Sandiego finally captured" to "Corruption suspected at MI6" and "Depute director of British intelligence suspected in theft". Along with a sprinkling of "Carmen Sandiego isn't real" and a somewhat confusing "fuck the Queen".

Times like this were the only ones where Julia regretted leaving ACME. Had she still been an active agent then no doubt she would have the full details by now - would most likely have been in London to see things herself. Instead she had to piece the story together from maddeningly vague news reports and hope that she heard directly from the source soon. That had definitely been Carmen in the police van after all - had ACME intercepted her? Worse yet, had _VILE_?

No. Surely not. Carmen had to be involved in the broadcasting of Braithwaite's theft of Saint Edward's Crown - and unlike Braithwaite the report had said she'd escaped, not been mysteriously released from custody. And Julia doubted that Braithwaite could have been foolish enough to keep the stolen crown in his own office. It had clearly been placed there by someone who wanted it to be found.

Leaning back to gaze up at the ceiling, Julia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. What really kept coming back to worry her was Braithwaite himself - the news had made no mention of VILE of course, but that was only to be expected when nobody outside of ACME or Carmen's team knew they existed. But the whole operation reeked of their presence - why else would Carmen have gotten involved? And if the deputy director of the British intelligence service could be a VILE operative, where else might they have infiltrated? If they had operatives in national security for every country then that would certainly explain why they were so good at keeping to the shadows. And it also made them far more dangerous. Feeling the familiar worry gnawing at the pit of her stomach, Julia draped one arm over her eyes with another deep sigh. Carmen knew more about VILE than she ever would. She would know what risks were worth taking.

Their entire relationship had been founded on mutual risk after all. Risk, and trust.

Four hours later, Julia's first groggy thought was that the cold had woken her after she'd fallen asleep on the couch. November was chilly in Poitiers and the apartment building's antiquated heating system was far from efficient. The fact that all she was wearing was a short nightgown didn't help. Then the doorbell rang again and Julia stumbled to her feet, wincing at the ache in her neck and shoulders. Regardless of what Carmen had said that first night, the couch was not a comfortable place to sleep.

Padding over to the door, Julia looked through the peephole and once again was startled back to full alertness. The hat and coat were still missing, but it was unmistakeably Carmen on the other side.

"Jules," the thief said by way of greeting as she sauntered through the hurriedly opened door. "Rough night?" she asked as Julia closed and locked the door behind her.

"I could ask you the same thing," Julia replied, rubbing at her eyes. She was uncomfortably aware that she had to look a mess - dishevelled and half asleep. Carmen had surely had even less sleep, but somehow the other woman looked as if she'd just returned from a morning jog and was ready to face the day. "I heard about London - what happened?"

Instead of replying, Carmen put a warm hand on Julia's bare shoulder and frowned. "Jules, you are _freezing_ ," she said with a mixture of concern and amusement. "Should I swap you that coat I gave you for a onesie? I could get you a red one."

Rolling her eyes, Julia swatted the thief's hand away. "I fell asleep on the couch after watching the news bulletins about Braithwaite. I would have brought a blanket with me but I wasn't intending on sleeping there - I have no idea how you did it."

"Eh, I've slept on worse," Carmen replied with a shrug. "And I only had to do it the once," she added with a sly grin and a wink that made Julia's glare crack into a smile. "How about I get you a blanket and make some coffee? I could really do with one, and I brought you some pain au chocolat from that patisserie you like. They were just opening the doors so they're still warm." Raising one hand, Carmen waved the paper bag at the smaller woman temptingly.

"Well all right then," The feigned exasperation in Julia's response was rendered even less convincing by the fondness in her eyes. "But I can get my own blanket."

* * *

"...so he was caught in his own trap," Carmen finished, grinning. "According to Shadowsan, the look on his face was priceless. I wish I could persuade him that he should carry a phone with a camera."

Both women were sitting on the couch, Julia curled in a fleece throw blanket, Carmen lounging back against the cushions. Sipping her second cup of moka pot coffee - somehow Carmen always managed to make it better than she could despite having owned the thing for five years - Julia shook her head slowly.

"I just can't believe that VILE had an operative in the British Secret Service for so long," she said quietly. "And not just any operative - the deputy director no less. Who knows what else he's helped them to cover up."

"Until now he considered himself untouchable." Setting her cup down on the coffee table, Carmen shifted position to lie across the couch, settling her head in Julia's lap. "I mean, who would ever suspect him, right? He was known for always being able to 'keep up appearances' as the Brits would say."

"I've never said that in my life," Julia joked, running one hand through the loose hair at the side of Carmen's neck.

"Well, you are only half a Brit," the thief replied with a grin, reaching up to run one thumb over the scatter of freckles across Julia's cheekbone. "And you have a much cuter accent than Roundabout anyway." Carmen's grin widened as Julia blushed, her freckles all but disappearing.

Julia's first attempt at a response came out as a flustered squeak. Clearing her throat awkwardly, she tried again. "So, another VILE plan thwarted, another stolen treasure returned... then what brings you here to Poitiers, Ms Sandiego?"

Carmen shrugged, though her grey eyes slid away from Julia's gaze as she spoke. "It was on my way home. General direction, anyway. Plus, I guessed you'd see the story on the news and worry about me getting arrested. Besides," she added, her eyes flickering towards Julia then away again. "I don't get to see you as much now that you've left ACME."

The half smile that had been on Julia's face froze at Carmen's words, wavered, then vanished as the smaller woman sighed. "I know. But it was for the best. I couldn't keep pretending that you were the enemy and eventually the Chief would have found out. That could have ended badly for everyone."  
  
"Mmmm." Carmen's response was noncommittal, but something had hardened in her eyes at the mention of the Chief. "ACME was there in London you know. Want to guess who Devineaux's new partner is?"

"Who?" Julia asked curiously. From the way Carmen's eyes were glittering she could already tell it wasn't someone who was a better fit for the bullheaded Frenchman.

"Agent Zari," Carmen replied, then giggled at the look on Julia's face.

Within moments, Julia was giggling as well. "Oh dear, I don't know which of them I feel worse for," she chuckled softly. "Devineaux is, well, _Devineaux,_ but he's a good man under it all. Mostly. But Zari is so... _serious_. I don't think I saw her smile once the entire time we were partnered together."

"Why, were you trying to make her smile?" Carmen queried, raising a sceptical eyebrow. "Should I be jealous?"

"Would you be jealous?" Julia countered with a smirk. "You're the one who skips around the world Ms Sandiego, perhaps I'm the one who should be jealous."

For a fleeting instant Carmen's expression changed, losing all trace of humour and leaving only a strange intensity in her eyes. Her mouth opened as if she was about to speak, but then the moment passed as quickly as it had come and she pressed her lips together instead.

"What?" Thinking that she had perhaps overstepped some line, Julia drew back into the blanket wrapped around her. "I'm not jealous if that's what you're thinking," she offered with a nervous quiver to her voice. "I know how important your work is. I just... miss you," she finished lamely. "Maybe I should have stayed with ACME after all."

Pushing herself up, Carmen shifted position to sit next to the other girl, shoulder to shoulder. "Hey, I miss you too, Jules. I know this whole thing isn't exactly a normal relationship. If you're not happy then-"

"I am," Julia interrupted, leaning against Carmen's shoulder. "I knew what I was getting into from the start. And maybe it's not normal, but I still love you."

Carmen made a soft noise of acknowledgement, but the arm that crept around Julia's waist said more. "I'm glad," she murmured eventually. "You mean a lot to me, Jules."

The two women sat in companionable silence for several minutes as the sky slowly lightened outside, until Carmen finally spoke again. "My flight home isn't till tomorrow afternoon. Any suggestions for what we can do to pass the time?"

Julia considered that for a moment, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Well, we've been to most of the historical sites in the city," she mused. "Perhaps we could go out to the site of the Battle of Poitiers?"

"The Battle of Poitiers?" Carmen repeated. "You want to go visit the site of one of the most famous battles of the Hundred Years War where the French army was absolutely stomped by the English force it vastly outnumbered?"

"Don't forget that the English also captured King John the Second of France, his youngest son, and most of the surviving French nobility," Julia added. "The defeat threw France into chaos because it destroyed the prestige of the upper classes."

Looking down at the smaller woman nestled against her shoulder, Carmen couldn't help a grin. "I take it back, Jules. You are absolutely British."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a misconception that Julia is French - according to one of the official novelisations for the show she's actually British-Chinese so that's what I'm going with. She just lives in France.
> 
> The Battle of Poitiers (19th September 1356) was a major English victory in the Hundred Years' War. The French forces may have outnumbered the English by as much as two to one, but it resulted in a stunning victory for the English which is often credited to the English archers - most of whom would have been peasants. Though as a Scot I should really be rooting for the French here, since the Scottish fought with the French - at this point England and Scotland were seperate kingdoms and often at war. The Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of France signed a treaty in 1295 that allied the two against the English - this is often affectionately referred to as 'The Auld Alliance'.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmen is not good at expressing emotions.

The sky was only just beginning to lighten outside when Carmen awoke the next morning. If anything it was even colder than the day before had been, and she drew herself further under the blankets with an irritable grunt. On the Isle of VILE she'd never had to deal with cold mornings. But at least the cold mornings in Poitiers came with something that more than made up for them - a warm body snuggled against her chest.

Nuzzling her face into Julia's short hair, Carmen inhaled the faint scent of lavender soap, her arms tightening slightly around the smaller woman's waist. Julia mumbled something that could have been either English or Cantonese but didn't wake up, though she did shift closer - one slender arm falling across Carmen's hip. Closing her eyes, Carmen let herself relax into the serenity she only ever found here, listening to the other woman's soft breathing and the faint sound of the wind outside. Here she didn't need to be watchful and on edge. Here she didn't need to think about capers, or what traps VILE might set for her, or even where her mother might be. Right here and now all she needed was to lie here with Julia where it was warm and peaceful.

_"You're the one who skips around the world Ms Sandiego," Julia said with a small smile that was almost a pout - the one that Carmen found so endearing. "Perhaps I'm the one who should be jealous."_

Carmen had only just managed to bite back her reply - she'd been about to say 'I'd rather be skipping around the world with you'. Even if it was true, that was dangerous territory. A transient life dodging VILE wasn't something Julia would want. Carmen couldn't uproot her from the life she had here into one of chaos and danger - it wasn't fair. One day VILE would be gone, and maybe then they could skip around the world together.

Until that time, they would have these moments at least. Carmen wasn't sure if Julia was even aware of how much she treasured them - tiny oases of calm in a tumultuous life where Carmen could wonder if this was what her life would have been like if her father had managed to escape with her and reunite with her mother. Somehow Carmen could never find the right words to articulate that feeling, but maybe one day they'd come to her.

She'd almost found them that day several months ago when they'd taken a trip to the Dolmen of La Pierre-Levée - one hand on the weathered stone of the prehistoric monument, the other holding Julia's. Carmen had turned towards her, seen that shy smile... and lost her train of thought as a car flashed by on the road that was almost insultingly anachronistic next to a structure that had been there since the Neolithic era.

Even just the words ‘I love you’ were hard to get out. Until Julia, nobody had ever said those words to her – though she guessed maybe her parents might have once upon a time. Carmen had no frame of reference for what those words actually meant – was that what you told someone when their presence seemed to soothe a wound you hadn’t even been aware of? Was that how Julia felt? Carmen just didn’t know, and wasn’t sure how to find out. Whatever it was that she had here, it was precious to her and Carmen had no desire to ruin it with clumsy attempts to express her feelings.

Pulling off capers involving pre-emptive thefts from some of the most high-security locations on Earth? Easy. Telling Julia how important she was to her? Impossible. It was almost laughable, but it wasn’t like VILE Academy had taught how to navigate relationships, only how to exploit them. Carmen hadn’t even known what to do the first time the two of them had tumbled into Julia’s bed together, breathless and giggling. But that had been different – as it turned out _neither_ of them had known what they were doing. They’d managed to work it out though. Carmen just hoped that Player respected her privacy enough to not look at her phone’s search history.

A shift of movement in her arms broke Carmen out of her reverie as Julia’s dark eyes flickered open, the smaller woman stretching as she yawned then relaxing against her body.

“Good morning,” Carmen said quietly, running one hand down the other woman’s back. “I would have had coffee ready, but I didn’t really feel like moving from here.”  
  
“This is nicer,” Julia mumbled into the space between Carmen’s neck and shoulder. “Coffee can wait.” One slim hand traced down Carmen’s side, making the thief shiver, before settling back around her hip. “Do you really have to go?” Although Julia was trying to sound petulant, Carmen could still hear the acceptance in her voice. This was just the way things were, and both of them knew it.

“I wish I didn’t,” Carmen replied, meaning it. “And don’t you have work to go to anyway, Miss Professor of Ancient History at a prestigious university?”

Julia’s response was a soft chuckle into Carmen’s shoulder. “Well, if I had said ‘assistant librarian at a prestigious university’ then I think the Chief might have had more questions about why I was quitting ACME.” There was a short pause and then Julia raised her head, a slight frown creasing the skin between her eyebrows. “Why do you tense up every time I mention her?”

Carmen hadn’t even realised she was doing it, but was suddenly aware of the way her fingertips were pressing into Julia’s back. The other woman’s expression wasn’t accusatory; instead it was genuinely concerned, her eyes worried. “It’s complicated,” Carmen replied eventually. ‘Your old boss killed my dad’ wasn’t exactly something she wanted to put on Julia’s shoulders. “I found out some things about her that... weren’t great.”

Julia seemed to hesitate for a few moments, biting her lower lip. “Is that... why you hacked the ACME servers?” she asked eventually. It was the first time the subject had come up between them – Julia had never asked about it which had come as a relief. But there was no escaping it now. Carmen had never intentionally lied to her and wasn’t about to start.

“Yes,” she said simply. “It was something I had to know. And only the Chief would have had the answer. It was nothing that could compromise ACME, I can promise you that.”

“You... couldn’t have just asked her?” Julia’s question was nervous, as if she was expecting an angry response. Not for the first time, Carmen wondered if there was more to the other woman’s decision to quit ACME than she’d told her – or if it had even been her decision. After all, the Chief certainly wasn’t stupid and odds were that she knew exactly how many times Julia had chosen to trust Carmen instead of arrest her.

“It’s not something I wanted to confront her about unless I was sure,” Carmen sighed, thinking of the report Player had copied from the ACME servers. There had been more photos of her father in it and an almost offensively impartial description of the events leading to his death. His murder. Without thinking about it, her arms had instinctively tightened around Julia’s waist, drawing her closer. “Now I am sure, but I don’t think she’s going to agree to another meeting. Not unless it’s on her terms and I’m shackled to a wall or something.” She felt Julia flinch at her words with a soft hiss of breath – obviously that image appealed to her as much as it did to Carmen herself.

“She was furious about the hack,” Julia admitted softly. “I’d never seen her so angry.” Carmen couldn’t help a flash of savage satisfaction at the thought. “It changed things. After that she just wasn’t willing to listen to me. Though I guess Stockholm should have been my first clue about how highly she valued my opinion,” Julia added with a bitter, self-deprecating grin. Carmen felt the smaller woman’s arms slide around her as she pressed her face against her neck – even though Carmen knew now that Julia hadn’t arranged the trap that had nearly ended with her freezing to death in the snow, that didn’t stop Julia from feeling guilty about it. It had barely even been a trap; more of a typical series of ACME misinterpretations.

“If she was willing to hear me out then I think I could explain myself.” There was a hard edge to Carmen’s voice as she spoke – the thought of the look on the Chief’s face when she threw her father’s death into it was one that the thief had considered extensively. “Then she’d know exactly why I chose to hack ACME instead of just asking her. And that I have a damn good reason for being wary about working with her.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t,” Julia replied, the worry in her gaze now bordering on fear. “Can... can you tell me what it was you discovered? Is it something that needs to be exposed, like Braithwaite?”

With a snort of sardonic laughter, Carmen shook her head. “No. It’s not a big secret. The people that would need to know already do. And it’s not anything she could be prosecuted for anyway. It’s more... personal. You don’t want to know.”

“Whatever it is, it’s hurting you.” One of Julia’s hands came up to cup the side of Carmen’s face, her thumb gently stroking across her cheek. “So I do want to know. If you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”

Carmen considered not telling her. But the concern and warmth in Julia’s eyes was genuine – and if left to wonder what this dark secret might be, it would only worry her more. More importantly, Carmen found that she wanted to tell her. She trusted her – and she wanted Julia to know about her past. Taking a deep breath, Carmen closed her eyes – seeing the events play out in her mind’s eye just as they had ever since Shadowsan had first told her the story. “About twenty years ago, the Chief was an Interpol agent. It was before ACME, so they had nothing to do with this. Just the Chief.”

“Yes,” Julia’s reply was a simple acknowledgement, though there was a level of apprehension there which told Carmen that she had already drawn a link between the time frame and the thief’s age.

“She was part of a team sent to apprehend a thief. Not just any thief; one like me. She suspected he was working for a dangerous organisation – for VILE, even though she didn’t even know the name at the time. Just that they were out there. Her team tracked him to Buenos Aires.” At some point Carmen had pulled away from the other woman, her arms now wrapped around herself instead. “When she finally cornered him, she thought he was trying to pull a weapon on her and she shot him. She killed him. He was trying to take out his car keys and she killed him.” Feeling her eyes start to sting, Carmen sank her head into her folded arms. “He was my father.”

Fighting back her tears, Carmen felt her breathing shudder in her chest as they threatened to spill anyway. Julia knowing that the Chief had killed her father wasn’t the worst part. Julia knowing that her father was a VILE operative was worse. And that was even without knowing that he wasn’t just any VILE operative, but a Faculty member. Would she be disgusted? Would she want to end things between them, or just straight up throw her out?

As it happened, Julia didn’t do any of those things. Carmen’s head was still buried in her arms, but she felt the other woman shift beside her. For a moment she thought that maybe Julia actually was going to throw her out, but then there were arms around her shoulders, gently drawing her in to rest against the smaller woman’s chest as she was slowly rocked back and forth. Pressing her face into Julia’s collarbone, Carmen took a shuddering breath before allowing herself to weep. In the months since finding out the truth about her father she had been careful about letting herself cry. It hadn’t been often, and she’d always been alone. Zack and Ivy seeing her cry was bad. Shadowsan was worse. But somehow the same didn’t apply here with Julia.

“He was trying to leave,” Carmen sobbed into the other woman’s chest, her words barely intelligible. “He was trying to leave VILE and he almost made it – if Interpol hadn’t showed up he’d have managed to disappear completely with me, and we’d have rendezvoused with my mom. Instead she killed him.”

“You were there?” Julia’s voice was a shocked whisper. “You would have been just a baby, and she killed your father in front of you?”

Carmen shook her head, not looking up. “She didn’t even know I was there,” the thief admitted reluctantly. It felt wrong – almost nauseating – to defend the woman that had killed her father, even if she was only relating the facts. “She still doesn’t. My father hid me then tried to run to draw Interpol away – the Chief caught him at his car and shot him.”

“And your mother?” Julia asked gently, one hand running back and forth through Carmen’s hair in long, soothing strokes.

“I don’t know,” Carmen replied, finally getting her tears under control. Lifting her head to look at the other woman, she was surprised to see that Julia had been crying as well. “She faked her death before my father was killed and disappeared – he would have known how to find her but he didn’t exactly have a chance to tell me. And it’s not like I’d have understood at the time anyway. I tried to look but the trail just... ends. She must think I’m dead, otherwise she’d have tried to find me... right?” The question was more of a plea – Carmen had been haunted by the thought that maybe she hadn’t been able to find her mother’s trail because her mother _didn’t want her to_.

“Of course she would have tried to find you.” The reply was immediate and certain, and strangely reassuring. “Was she... like your father?”

“You mean a thief?” Carmen couldn’t help a faint, tearful smile as Julia blushed. “I just don’t know, Jules. VILE don’t seem to know anything about her – if she was one of their operatives then they might not have known she was in a relationship with my father, but they would have noticed her disappearance. And if they did know anything about her, I think they’d have used it as leverage against me by now.”

“Then maybe she was just an ordinary person,” Julia suggested, still blushing. “Well, maybe not ordinary but... you know what I mean.”

“I do,” Carmen acknowledged. While she briefly thought about pulling away to sit beside Julia instead of being cradled against her like a child, Carmen found that she didn’t want to. The warmth and the contact felt... nice. “And I thought that too, but at the same time... how could she have disappeared so completely if she hadn’t had training? Maybe she went back to where my dad was staying to look for me, but VILE had it burned down to get rid of any evidence that could be traced back to them. She might have thought I died in the fire.”

There was silence for several long moments, but neither woman moved. “I’m so sorry, Carmen,” Julia murmured eventually. “But I’m glad you told me. The Chief said that I was always welcome back at ACME if I changed my mind but now... I don’t think I could go back now.”

“I would still like the opportunity to confront her about my dad,” Carmen admitted, half to herself. “I want to see how she’d justify herself. But...” Breaking off with a sigh, the thief grimaced before continuing. “Regardless of how I feel about the Chief, VILE is still the real enemy. Not ACME. And VILE feels more threatened by them than by me. Sometimes I think sacrificing a potential alliance just for personal reasons was stupid of me. And selfish. But that doesn’t mean I want you to go back there,” she added, looking the other woman in the eye.

“Maybe... I wouldn’t have to go back?” Julia offered. “I don’t have an ACME pen any more, but I do have the Chief’s contact details. I could try to arrange a meeting between both of you? I could say that you had approached me because...” She hesitated, then shook her head dismissively. “No, that’s a stupid idea. Especially after Stockholm.”

Carmen didn’t reply right away, thinking it over instead. Not having to dodge ACME as well as VILE would make her life that much easier – but that was assuming the Chief would listen to reason. Then again, ‘I wanted to know if it was true that you killed my father’ was a reasonable justification for hacking the ACME servers. And deep, deep down Carmen still had a faint hope that maybe the Chief might know something – anything – about any female associates Dexter Wolfe might have had. Even the slightest clue was better than nothing.

“It’s not a stupid idea,” Carmen finally replied. “But I wouldn’t want her to suspect that you’re working with me. Or anything about... this,” she said, making an expressive, sweeping gesture across their entwined bodies. “The last thing I want is to get you in trouble.”

“Well, she does know that you’ve worked with me in the past,” Julia began thoughtfully. “Not everything of course. I couldn’t possibly tell her about Monaco, but she knows about Milan. What if I said that you asked me to act as an intermediary?” After a moment of consideration, Julia’s expression grew doubtful. “But what if ACME tries to trap you? You could be in danger.”

“Given their track record, I’m pretty sure I don’t need to worry about an ACME trap,” Carmen said with a dismissive snort. “Let me think about it and maybe talk to Shadowsan. Are _you_ sure you want to get involved with this?”

Julia’s eyes were warm as she looked at Carmen. “I thought I already was,” she quipped with a wry smile, then leaned down to kiss her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Dolmen of La Pierre-Levée is a megalith in suburban Poitiers dating back to the Neolithic. Originally it would have been buried under an earth mound, but this eroded away over the millennia to expose the stones underneath. There are various tales and legends associated with it, and the French Renaissance writer François Rabelais refers to it in his work 'Pantagruel'. And it really is right next to a road, as you can see [here](https://m.megalithic.co.uk/a558/a312/gallery/France/Poitou/aP7200191_La_Pierre-Levee_Poitiers.jpg).
> 
> Quick note about relative ages - I think Julia is only a couple of years older than Carmen. She has a degree, which would put her at 22-23 when she graduated, and was a new recruit with Interpol. (source: one of the show's novelizations) If she was more experienced as a law enforcement officer then I don't think she'd be so idealistic or so easily flustered. (see: Agent Zari) Also, being British-Chinese my headcanon is that while she speaks several languages, she learned both English and Cantonese while growing up which gives her two native languages.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tags have been updated - please check them before continuing. They only apply towards the end of this chapter but I added them now to be safe.

November in New York City might have been warmer than it was in Poitiers, but only barely. Julia could see her breath misting the air as she paced nervously behind the giant statue of Saint George and the Dragon that stood in the North Gardens of the United Nations. The cold wasn’t anywhere near as intense as it had been in Stockholm, but it was an uncomfortable reminder all the same. Carmen had nearly died that day, because of a situation Julia had put her into. She still remembered the panic that had gripped her when she’d watched the glider swaying as it disappeared into the distance. Her fury hadn’t been nearly enough to quench it.

Panic had turned into guilt and horror when Julia had accompanied the other agents out to the crash site in a ravine outside the city limits and saw Carmen half-dead from exposure and whatever injuries she might have suffered from the impact. She’d been there for _hours_. The medics were already there, strapping the thief to a stretcher as they prepared to airlift her, but Julia had managed to get close enough for their eyes to meet. The shame that had boiled through her at the look in those grey eyes had been enough to stop her in her tracks. This was her fault.

At that point, Julia had thought she would never get the chance to speak to Carmen again. It hadn’t been hard to find the hospital that her friends had taken her to, but it took several days for Julia to screw up enough courage to go there. And by then, of course, Carmen was already gone. Along with any hope Julia had of rebuilding their rapport. She’d nearly quit ACME then and there, and truth be told... she had only stayed because she knew ACME was her only chance of encountering Carmen again.

She might have felt worse about how self-serving those motives were, but she had still been furious at the way the meeting she had arranged with Carmen had been turned into a trap. Even if that meeting had been entirely for herself and not for ACME at all.

But Carmen had dropped off ACME’s radar as well. Weeks had passed. Julia had been spending a rare weekend at home in Poitiers, walking home through the botanic gardens when a familiar voice had asked if she still wanted to continue their conversation from Stockholm. She’d turned around and Carmen had been standing under one of the park’s cedar trees. Before she even knew what she was doing, Julia had forgotten all of her reservations and self-consciousness and hugged her, apologies spilling out like a waterfall.

What had been even more surprising was that when Julia had explained that she’d had no idea ACME was tracking her, much less that they planned to assault the bell tower, Carmen had believed her. And Julia had burst into tears of sheer relief. It had been quite embarrassing.

They had ended up back at Julia’s apartment and they had talked. For hours. Not just about ACME and VILE; they had moved on to history and art. They had talked about Milan, laughed about how Julia’s attempt to arrest the thief had been so quickly derailed into helping her instead. Julia – remembering how Carmen had turned around and immediately pulled her jacket open to look at what she was wearing – had been blushing the entire time. Then somehow it had gotten late and Carmen had stayed the night, sleeping on the couch. She’d been gone the next morning. While Julia had been disappointed that she hadn’t been able to say goodbye, the mere fact that she’d been able to talk to the thief at all was more than enough.

Then Monaco had happened. Thinking about the time she had spent picking out a dress beforehand still made Julia blush. She’d told herself she needed to look her absolute best in order to blend in at the gala, but she’d known the real reason was in case Carmen showed up. She still had one of the roses Carmen had sent her afterwards, carefully dried and preserved. And the next time the thief had shown up unannounced – under the same cedar tree in the park – they had both ended up in Julia’s bed. The next morning, Carmen had still been there.

That was when Julia had known that she had to quit ACME. Carmen hadn’t asked her to, but Julia was sure that she would never be able to persuade the Chief to see the thief as anything but a threat. Certainly not after the hack. And Julia couldn’t even try to pretend that she still wanted to see Carmen caught. So she’d lied about the university job – the first and last time she’d ever actually lied to the Chief – and walked away. Her heart wasn’t in the game. It was with Carmen.

And now here she was, close to midnight in the middle of Manhattan, possibly being used to lure Carmen into a trap once more. Granted, the North Gardens were an open space - not a confined bell tower - and Carmen would be able to vanish into the city streets in seconds. That didn’t make Julia feel any better. Not after Stockholm.

“Jules?” The sound of Carmen’s voice broke through Julia’s increasingly paranoid thoughts and she turned to see the thief watching her from where she was perched on one of the dragon’s clawed feet. Rather than her signature hat and coat, Carmen was wearing a casual hooded top and jeans – clothing that would blend into busy streets far more easily. “Stop worrying. ACME isn’t getting the drop on me this time.”

Sighing, Julia moved back over to the statue and sat beside the taller woman. “I can’t help it,” she admitted softly. “I’d feel better if it wasn’t just us here – you should have brought your team.”

“I have Player,” Carmen replied, tapping her earring. “And the less ACME knows about my team, the better. Besides, I thought the agreement was that there would be two of us and two of them?”

Being included as part of the ‘us’ filled Julia with warmth. She still wasn’t exactly sure how to define what lay between them – was afraid to push the issue – but Carmen trusted her and valued her and for now that was enough. “You could still have had them nearby though,” Julia said as she laid one hand over Carmen’s. The other woman took it without hesitation, their fingers intertwining.

“If I can’t shake ACME off in the middle of Manhattan then they deserve to catch me,” the thief snorted. “Besides, I’m pretty sure my team wouldn’t have wanted to spend the day visiting every museum in the City with me.”

“Hardly every one, we barely got south of Central Park,” Julia countered with a smile. “We spent far too much time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art talking about how many of the exhibits were stolen.”

“Hey, I’m going to need a new project if we ever manage to take down VILE and stealing looted items from museums and returning them to where they belong seems good to me.” Carmen grinned, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Plus, that would pretty much keep me occupied for the rest of my life.”

Julia shook her head in feigned dismay, trying to sound shocked. “Carmen, we talked about this,” she said with a sigh that was almost a giggle. “You’re not stealing anything from the Met. Not until you’ve switched out all of the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum for replicas and returned the originals to Athens.”

“Ugh, fine.” Carmen’s sigh was overly dramatic. “What is it with you and the Parthenon Marbles anyway?”

“It’s personal,” Julia replied, her voice casual although her shoulders had tensed. “And they belong to Athens, regardless of what the British Museum says.”

_“They were bought and paid for,” her father stated coldly as they stood in front of the weathered marble statues that had once been part of the Parthenon’s east pediment. “You’re just a child, Julia. You don’t understand these things.”_

Carmen shrugged, appearing to take Julia at her word. “That’s true enough.” Getting to her feet, the thief stretched then checked her watch. “Three minutes to go, as long as ACME are on time.” Touching one hand to her earring, Carmen seemed to listen for a few moments, then laughed grimly. “According to Player, one of their cars just went into the First Avenue Tunnel so I guess they will be.”

Julia moved to stand next to her, glancing anxiously at the other woman’s face. It was absolutely emotionless, Carmen’s grey eyes distant and cold. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked quietly, touching the back of her hand in what she hoped was reassurance.

“I’ll be fine,” Carmen replied, too quickly. “If I have to make a break for it, you know where to meet me. We’ve still got museums to visit tomorrow after all,” the thief added with a tight smile.

Julia had meant ‘will you be okay confronting the woman who killed your father’, but she let that slide. “I know,” she said instead, trying not to let her nerves show. “So, I’ll go and wait for ACME – if there’s more than two, you’ll disappear?”  
  
“That’s the plan.” Something flickered in Carmen’s gaze as she spoke and she reached out to grab Julia’s hand as the smaller woman started to move towards the gates on the other side of the statue. “Are you sure you’re okay with this, Jules? If ACME try to take you in then I’ll...”  
  
“Hey, I was the one who suggested this,” Julia’s smile was genuine instead of worried this time, touched by Carmen’s concern. “I should be the one taking the risk after Stockholm. I don’t work for them any more, so it’s not like they can accuse me of being a double agent. Besides, is it any more dangerous than dressing up as you to draw off VILE operatives?”

Carmen gave a soft, rueful chuckle at that and let go of the other woman’s hand. “Guess not,” she replied. “But be careful, okay?”

“I will.” With that, Julia steeled herself and walked around the statue with a calm, measured pace. The other side faced on to First Avenue; although there were access roads for vehicles entering the gardens, these were closed off by gates that would normally be manned. But the security booths were empty and there was nobody here to open them. Somehow, Julia didn’t think that would be a problem for ACME.

Glancing at her watch, Julia saw that there was now less than thirty seconds to midnight – just as a familiar sleek black car rolled up to one of the gates. There was a soft, metallic click and the doors swung open as if by their own accord. Instinctively, Julia brushed herself down and tried to adjust a collar that wasn’t there as the car pulled into the gardens, stopping just inside the gates by a row of metal bollards. Like Carmen, Julia was wearing casual clothing and for some reason that just made her feel even more anxious.

Julia heard her watch chime briefly. Midnight.

Only one figure stepped out of the car, dressed in her usual immaculate suit and wearing her usual lack of expression. Agent Zari. There was no sign of the Chief, but Julia had been expecting that. The last time she’d met with Carmen in person, she’d lost the upper hand. The Chief never made the same mistake twice.

“Argent,” Zari acknowledged, stopping several feet away with her hands clasped behind her back. As always, those green eyes were entirely too knowing for Julia’s comfort.

“Agent Zari,” Julia replied politely, glancing back towards the car and half expecting Devineaux to explode out of the passenger side. “I thought there were going to be two ACME agents here?”

“You were expecting Devineaux as well?” Zari asked, raising one eyebrow.

Somehow Zari always managed to make Julia feel awkward and wrong-footed. She wondered if Devineaux felt the same now that she was his new partner. “Uhm... maybe?” she offered hesitantly.

“I was under the impression that this was likely to be a delicate situation that would require some diplomacy,” Zari stated, with only the faintest hint of sarcasm. “Not exactly his wheelhouse. And there will be two agents here,” she added, tapping the pen in the breast pocket of her jacket for emphasis. “But only if Sandiego shows. The Chief is a busy woman.”

“Well, here I am.” Carmen’s voice made Julia jump despite knowing she was there. Looking back towards the statue, she saw the thief swing out from behind it and walk towards them, hands thrust in her pockets in an attitude that was almost aggressively nonchalant. “And you might be the only agent that’s here, Zari, but don’t try to tell me you haven’t got another half dozen or so watching from the rooftops.”

If Zari was offended by the accusation, she didn’t show it in either expression or tone. “Fine,” she replied with a dismissive shrug. “I won’t.” Without wasting any more time, the agent drew the pen from her pocket, clicked it, and let it fall to the ground where it landed point down. It wobbled briefly, then straightened as it projected the holographic image of the ACME Chief.

If anything, she looked even less pleased to be there than Zari did.

For several moments, no-one spoke. It wasn’t exactly silence – such a thing was impossible in New York City, even at midnight - but it was awkward all the same. The four women faced each other, Carmen and Julia on one side, Zari and the Chief’s hologram on the other. Julia shifted her weight from one foot to the other nervously – it wasn’t the relative silence that bothered her, it was the way Carmen had mentioned other ACME agents watching them. And the fact that Zari hadn’t even tried to deny it. The large security booth between the gates could certainly conceal several agents who were waiting for their chance to spring out.

“Sandiego.” The Chief’s voice was curt. “After the trick you pulled with that hard drive you’re lucky I agreed to speak with you without having you in custody first.”

“Called it,” Carmen’s voice was an amused huff, but her next words were cold as ice. “After what I found out from that trick I pulled, you’re lucky I agreed to speak with you at all.”

Julia had slowly begun to sidle towards the main security booth, intent on finding out if her suspicions were justified. She had been expecting Zari to stop her, but the agent’s eyes – along with the Chief’s - were fixed on Carmen.

“What are you talking about?” the Chief snapped, obviously running out of patience already. “I’m in no mood to play your games, girl.”

Turning her back on the others, Julia headed towards the booth with firm, decisive steps, ready to run if anyone tried to stop her. It was completely empty. Letting out a long sigh of relief, Julia remembered what Carmen had said about the rooftops and glanced upwards briefly. If there really were agents up there it wasn’t like they’d be a threat – ACME gas guns were no use at range. A red flash from somewhere along East 47th Street caught her eye briefly, but her attention was immediately seized by Carmen’s reply.

“I’m talking about Buenos Aires. Twenty years ago.” The thief’s voice shook slightly, but not from tears this time. Now it was barely restrained rage. Again, the same red flash seemed to dance across Julia’s vision but she paid it no mind. “When you killed Dexter Wolfe. When you killed my _father_.”

Julia heard the Chief gasp sharply, and turned to see her holographic form take several steps back, her eyes wide. It was the first time she’d actually seen the woman look shaken. Zari hadn’t moved, but even her normally stoic expression was shocked. Both women were still staring at Carmen, whose gaze was fixed on the Chief, her teeth bared in a snarl. Julia had never seen her look so furious.

And then Julia saw a dot of red light appear on Carmen’s shoulder, bright even against the scarlet fabric. It quivered there for a moment before sliding up her neck towards her head. Julia was already running as it settled just in front of the thief’s ear like a malignant fly. “Carmen, get _down_!”

Carmen had just started to turn as Julia leapt at her, hitting the taller woman hard. Julia heard her gasp as the breath was driven out of her by the impact, then heard an echoing crack as something searing hot slammed into her back with brutal force, hurling them both to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The statue of Saint George and the Dragon that stands in the North Gardens of the United Nations headquarters in New York City is actually called 'Good Defeats Evil' and was presented to the UN by the then-Soviet Union in 1990, the 45th anniversary of the UN's founding. It is also a potent symbol of nuclear disarmament - made from pieces of Soviet and U.S. nuclear missiles that were destroyed under the terms of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Which the USA withdrew from in 2019. Yay. You can see the statue [here](https://www.un.org/ungifts/sites/www.un.org.ungifts/files/006g_1.jpg), this photo is taken from the grounds of the gardens facing towards First Avenue.
> 
> The Parthenon Marbles - also known as the Elgin Marbles - are a collection of Classical Greek marble sculptures that were once part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. Over a period of 11 years, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin removed around half of the surviving sculptures from the Parthenon along with those from other ancient structures. He claimed to have an official decree from the Ottoman Empire - who ruled Greece at the time - allowing him to do this but the veracity of this document is disputed and even at the time some people (notably Lord Byron - yes, _that_ Lord Byron) compared his actions to vandalism or looting. He sold them to the British government in 1816 and they were then passed to the British Museum, where they have remained ever since. The Greek government has campaigned for their return, there is an international association dedicated to their return, 40% of the British public support their return (as opposed to 16% who think they should stay, the remaining 46% have no opinion or would not vote) but the British Museum has consistently refused to return them.


	4. Chapter 4

“What are you talking about? I’m in no mood to play your games, girl.”

It was the sheer self-righteousness of the woman that made Carmen lose her temper. Standing there – not even in person – with a look of irritated disdain on her holographic face, as if she’d never shot a man dead while he was reaching for his car keys. In her peripheral vision she could see Julia moving off to one side, towards the entrance to the gardens, but thought nothing of it – if something suspicious had caught her eye Jules would warn her.

“I’m talking about Buenos Aires,” Carmen snarled through gritted teeth. “Twenty years ago.” To her great satisfaction, the Chief’s eyes had widened the moment she mentioned the location – the woman knew exactly what she was talking about.

_“Uhm, Red?”_ Player’s voice buzzed in her ear. _“I thought you said you’d be diplomatic?”_ Carmen ignored him.

“When you killed Dexter Wolfe,” the thief continued – and saw the Chief flinch at the mention of her father’s name. A brief glance towards Agent Zari was enough to see that the woman looked completely nonplussed – clearly she had no idea what had happened in Buenos Aires. Obviously the Chief kept that particular piece of dirty laundry to herself. “When you killed my _father_.”

This time the Chief actually gasped, taking several steps back as she stared at Carmen in shock, her mouth working soundlessly. Carmen’s snarl was starting to turn into a savage grin, but then everything seemed to happen at once.

“Carmen!” Julia’s voice was a shrill, panicked yell as the other woman raced towards her. “Get _down_!”

At the first sound of Julia’s voice, Carmen had started to turn towards her before her words had registered. A flash of red light dazzled her momentarily and then Julia hit her at full pelt, tackling her like a quarterback. As the breath was knocked out of her in a rush Carmen heard a distant crack and suddenly a second, harder impact struck them both. Carmen was already stumbling backwards, but the second blow sent her sprawling as something tore a burning line across her upper arm.

As she hit the ground with Julia on top of her, Carmen’s first confused thought was that Zari had tackled her as well, but then she caught a glimpse of the other woman still on her feet, looking around wildly. Then there was another crack, and Carmen felt something strike the ground beside her head, punching a hole into the turf. That was when she realised she was being shot at.

Instinct and training took over. She had to get into cover. The huge statue of Saint George was cover. Grabbing Julia, Carmen rose into a crouch and started to haul her towards the statue... and Julia _screamed_ , the sound a dreadful, guttural wail of sheer agony. For what was nearly her last moment, Carmen hesitated, but then the next bullet barely missed her, skimming past her head so closely that she felt the displaced air trace a path across her cheek. Forcing herself to ignore Julia’s cries, Carmen straightened up and ran – half carrying and half dragging the other woman with her. As she managed to get behind the statue, Carmen heard it ring like a misshapen bell as another shot struck it but didn’t penetrate. Safe. For now. But any relief Carmen might have felt evaporated the moment she looked at Julia.

There was a neat circular perforation the size of a dime in the back of Julia’s winter coat, just to the right of her spine and glistening wetly in the glow from the streetlights. Feeling her insides turn to ice, Carmen turned her over with as much care as her shaking hands could muster. The ragged hole in the front of the other woman’s coat was closer to the size of a half dollar, the charcoal grey fabric darkening to damp black in a wide circle around it.

“Oh no. No. No no no no no...” Carmen wasn’t even aware of the words, much less that they were coming from her own lips. Her hands moved to open Julia’s coat to get a better look at the injury then froze. That was wrong. Control the bleeding first. The left sleeve of her top was already torn near the shoulder – Carmen couldn’t remember how that had happened, but it made tearing it off that much easier. Pain flared across her upper arm as she did so, but she filed that away as a minor consideration right now. Folding the fabric into a thick wad, Carmen lifted Julia gently and pressed it against the wound in her back then carefully lowered her to the ground, hoping the other woman’s weight would keep it in place.

Ripping the right sleeve off was much harder. There was no convenient tear in that side and Carmen’s left arm throbbed in protest as she tugged at the cuff, feeling stiff and clumsy. Cursing, wishing she had her coat and tools, Carmen pulled her right arm back to leave the lower part of the sleeve hanging empty, then stood on it firmly and straightened up with a sharp jerk. Thankfully the motion made the garment rip along the shoulder seam, allowing her to pull the sleeve away. She dimly registered that she could hear both Agent Zari and the Chief shouting on the other side of the statue and Player’s voice in her ear, but she ignored them all as she sank back to her knees beside Julia.

The other woman’s dark eyes were wide and glazed behind her glasses, her breathing coming in short, shallow gulps. Carmen rolled the second sleeve into a ball and pressed it against the hole in the front of Julia’s jacket with both hands, thinking that it felt close to her shoulder... then felt the woman’s ribs _shift_ unnaturally beneath the pressure. This time, Julia’s scream was weaker but just as agonised, her left arm flailing at Carmen’s shoulder in an instinctive attempt to push her away. Her right arm only made a few convulsive jerks, barely lifting from the ground.

It was the scream that made Carmen flinch, not the feeble, uncoordinated blows. But she had to slow the bleeding, and the only way to do that was to keep pressure on the wound. So she did, and after a few moments Julia’s arm dropped back to her side as her scream faded into a shuddering gasp. Carmen saw her eyes roll back into her head as her body went entirely limp against the grass and felt her own breath catch in her throat as fear rushed through her.

Keeping her hands pressed against the wound, Carmen leaned down to check if Julia was still breathing. She could still hear Zari and the Chief – and the intermittent crack of shots that no longer seemed to be aimed at her - but blocked them out. Player’s voice was still echoing in her ear though, demanding to know what was happening, if those were gunshots he’d heard, if she’d been hit. The noise was too distracting and Carmen just didn’t have time for it at that moment – Julia was more important. Almost without thinking about it, she pulled the earring communicator out and shoved it into a pocket. She’d deal with that later.

With Player silenced, Carmen could finally hear Julia’s low, laboured breathing and her shoulders sagged in relief. It didn’t last; now that the shock and adrenaline was wearing off the reality of the situation hit the thief hard. Someone had tried to shoot her dead. Might have succeeded if Julia hadn’t tackled her. And now Julia was hurt instead. Badly. Because Carmen had brought her here. Because she hadn’t thought ACME would resort to assassination, despite knowing that her father had been killed by their founder.

It was at that moment that the ACME pen hurtled around the side of the statue, spearing neatly into the grass a short distance away, and blue light washed over Carmen as if merely thinking about the woman had summoned her. The cold glow made Julia’s already pale skin look corpselike, and turned the bloodstains on Carmen’s hands a deep purple. Slowly raising her head, Carmen glared up at the Chief’s holographic form. If the woman had really been here - and if Carmen had her tools - she would have buried the laser cutter in her neck in an instant.

But then Carmen saw the look on the woman’s face. Utter shock. And not the surprise of someone whose attempt to kill her had just gone sideways – actual horrified astonishment. The Chief looked from Carmen to Julia then back again, every bit as speechless as she’d been when Carmen had first announced that the man she’d killed all those years ago had been her father. Dimly, she registered two more shots but no corresponding impacts anywhere near her. The shooter had obviously picked another target.

“I...” Finally finding her voice, the Chief lost it again just as quickly, swallowing hard. “I don’t know what-“ As she spoke, her head seemed to turn pink as the laser sight settled on her, diffused by the light projecting her hologram. There was another crack, and a faint static hum as the bullet passed harmlessly through her. Either it was a false flag to make Carmen think that ACME wasn’t behind this... or the shooter wanted the Chief dead too.

The woman might not have felt anything, but she had certainly noticed the shot and turned to look at where it had come from. “Zari,” the Chief snapped, pointing. “East 47th – looks like it’s coming from the Japan Society. Is one of ours...” Whatever else she might have said was broken up along with her holographic image as another crack was accompanied by the sound of shattering plastic. Clearly the shooter had decided to aim for the pen after discovering that the Chief wasn’t a viable target.

A soft whimper immediately snapped Carmen’s full attention back to Julia as she felt the woman writhe beneath her hands, her eyelids flickering. “Jules?” Carmen’s voice was barely more than a hesitant whisper. “Julia, can you hear me?”

For a few moments Julia didn’t reply, her eyes open but distant and bewildered, the pupils huge dark pools. “Wha... what happened?” she finally managed to ask, her voice slurring as if she was drunk or half asleep. Her gaze drifted to Carmen’s face, then abruptly came back into focus, as if the sight of the thief had brought her back to herself. “Carmen! Saw the sight...” Julia’s words broke off as she gasped for breath, the air making a thick, wet sound in the back of her throat. “Someone... trying to shoot...”

“Shhhh, it’s okay, just keep still,” Carmen was trying to sound calm, but couldn’t keep the panicked edge from her voice. She could feel blood welling between her fingers as it saturated the makeshift dressing, horribly warm in the cold night air. Julia needed an ambulance, now, but there was no way one could get to them if they were still being shot at. Carmen wanted to look around the side of the statue to check the situation, but there was every chance that was exactly what the shooter was waiting for and she would be no help to Julia if she got a bullet in the head. Having to sit helplessly ran contrary to every instinct Carmen possessed – she wanted to run, to _fight_ \- but against a sniper and with none of her gear there was little she could do. Well, running was still an option – Carmen was relatively sure that she could serpentine her way out of the line of fire and into the city streets without being hit. The pacing of the shots suggested that there was only one shooter, who currently couldn't see her. She could be in the shelter of the trees at the north end of the gardens in moments. But only if she abandoned Julia here.

She couldn’t do that. The mere thought of it made Carmen feel sick. Maybe she could run carrying Julia, but that would make her a slower, easier target. And it would only make Julia’s injuries worse, if it didn’t kill her outright.

_‘She’s probably dying anyway,’_ a cold voice seemed to whisper in her ear. What might have been Black Sheep’s voice if she’d never become Carmen Sandiego. Emotionless and brutally pragmatic. _‘The police will be on their way by now, do you really want to be here when they arrive? She’s dead weight. Leave her.’_

“No!” The denial came out as a strangled shout, the sound of her own voice making Carmen jump. Some people might consider their conscience to be nagging, but Carmen found that the inner voice of her VILE training was so much worse. Julia was one of the best things in her life. To even think about leaving her here was monstrous.

Then she heard running footsteps approaching the statue. Crouching over Julia’s body, Carmen tensed like a coiled spring. If the newcomer was a threat, they would get a bolo punch straight to the throat.

But it was Agent Zari who skidded around the dragon’s head, starting in surprise as she saw that Carmen was still there. The agent’s green eyes were furious, but for once that anger wasn’t aimed at the thief. Zari took in the scene immediately, kneeling on Julia’s other side.

“Argent,” she snapped sharply, not even acknowledging Carmen. Julia’s eyes had closed again, though her chest was still hitching unevenly beneath the thief’s hands. Zari’s breath hissed between gritted teeth in what could have been either concern or exasperation. Before Carmen could stop her, she’d reached down to grind the knuckles of her right fist against Julia’s sternum. The injured woman recoiled with a cry of pain, but her eyes snapped open. That was the only reason Carmen didn’t immediately punch the agent in the face.

Shaking her jacket off, Zari glanced at Carmen briefly. “You need to try and keep her awake,” she ordered, as if talking to a subordinate instead of an adversary. “Help me move her onto the jacket,” she continued, laying the garment on the ground beside Julia. “We can use it to carry her to the car.”

“We can’t move her!” Carmen protested, staring at the older woman as if she’d lost her mind. “We need an ambulance, and what about whoever’s shooting at-“

“Shooter’s down,” Zari said shortly. “I know this city - there’s a trauma centre five minutes away and we can get her there in less time than it would take an ambulance to get here. And her chances are a hell of a lot better if she’s still breathing when we get there. Now help me move her.”

Although she wanted to argue, Carmen had been following orders for most of her life before leaving VILE and it felt strangely comforting to hear them now; to just trust that Zari knew best. Sliding one arm under Julia’s back to hold the fabric wadded against the entry wound in place – flinching as she felt blood squeeze out of it like a saturated sponge - Carmen lifted her upper body as gently as possible while Zari lifted her legs. The hoarse, agonised sound Julia made as she was moved tore at Carmen’s heart.

“Good,” Zari muttered as they set Julia down on the jacket. “You’re going to need both hands to carry her with,” she added, with a sharp gesture that indicated Carmen should move back. Despite herself, Carmen obeyed and watched as Zari tied the empty sleeves of the jacket around Julia’s chest to keep pressure on the wound. “Lift her on three,” the agent instructed, crouching and taking hold of the jacket’s lower corners. “Try to support her head.”

Carmen nodded, holding onto the jacket’s collar with both hands and positioning her wrists on either side of Julia’s neck. While part of her wanted to resent the agent’s brusque commands, another part - the one that was used to following orders – found them reassuring. Julia wasn’t heavy to begin with, and on the count of three the two of them lifted her easily. Carmen saw her wince at the movement but this time she didn’t cry out in pain.

Matching Zari’s slow, careful steps as they carried Julia around the statue, Carmen’s eyes widened as she saw that the security booth at the gates – the one Julia had gone to investigate an eternity ago – had several shattered windows, and two holes punched through the lower panelling. Those shots definitely hadn’t been aimed at her. People had started to gather around the gates – it might have been after midnight but New York was still the city that never slept – and Carmen could also hear approaching sirens. Her legs twitched reflexively; despite everything her gut instinct was still to run.

“We’ll be gone before they get here.” Apparently Zari had guessed exactly what Carmen was thinking. “And if we’re not, Agent Collins will deal with them,” she added, nodding towards the gates. Following the gesture, Carmen saw a man in a familiar suit standing with his back to them, apparently reassuring the gathering crowd that there was nothing to worry about.

“So you did have other agents here,” Carmen grunted, half to herself.

“I never said we didn’t,” Zari replied as they reached the car. Both back doors were already open and the agent paused for a moment as she considered the logistics. “You go first, get her on the back seat and I’ll pass her in to you.”

Clambering backwards into the car was awkward, but would have been worse if the ACME vehicles weren’t the typically large, wide-seated American type. Easing Julia down onto the back seat, Carmen sank into the footwell behind the passenger’s seat as she pulled the jacket along until the injured woman was fully inside. The combination of Julia’s small stature and the size of the car meant that she could lie at full length on the back seat even after the doors were closed.

Kneeling stiffly in the footwell, Carmen leaned in close to the injured woman, almost as close as they’d been in the hotel bed that morning. She could still hear Julia’s harsh, ragged breathing but her eyes had closed. Carmen barely noticed the driver’s door slam as Zari threw herself into the seat and immediately started the engine, swinging the vehicle around in a tight circle to face the gate it had come through. Carmen braced both herself and Julia as the car started to move, expecting it to take off at top speed. But instead it rolled smoothly out onto the road, turning to point along the plaza towards First Avenue.

“Remember what I said,” Zari snapped, shifting gears with a violent rattle of the stick that would have made Zack wince. “Try to keep her talking.” _Then_ the car started moving, a powerful engine rumbling to full speed in seconds as streetlights cast strobing strips of shadow across the vehicle’s interior.

“Jules?” Carmen patted the side of the woman’s face gently. She couldn’t bring herself to repeat Zari’s earlier action – it might have roused Julia before, but it had obviously hurt her as well. “C’mon Jules, answer me. Please.” Relief washed over the thief as she felt Julia’s face twitch against her palm, her eyes fluttering open to look up at her hazily as Carmen’s thumb brushed her cheek.

“Carmen?” Julia’s voice was a faint, groggy whisper, her expression vague and confused. “I... hurt.”

“Yeah, I know,” Carmen’s attempt to sound reassuring came out as borderline hysterical, but Julia didn’t seem to notice. “We’re almost at the hospital. You’ll be fine. We still need to see the rest of the museums here, remember?” Carmen’s vision was blurring as her voice shook, and as she blinked her eyes to clear them she felt tears streak down her face.

“Mmmm.” Julia leaned into Carmen’s touch, her eyelids threatening to close again. Carmen pinched her cheek hard, trying not to think about how cold her skin had become. Even in the dim illumination from the car’s interior lights she could see that the other woman’s lips were turning blue.

“And you need to help me plan a caper to steal the Parthenon Marbles, right?” the thief asked desperately, her voice as cracked as her attempted smile.

Julia made a small sound that might have been a laugh. “Yes,” she murmured, her lips twitching into a weak grin. “I love you.”

Leaning in as close to the other woman as she could, Carmen pressed her tearstained cheek to Julia’s cold one. “I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have any trivia facts this chapter, but with Season 4 coming up I'm going to take this chance to talk about my theory regarding Carmen's mother. Carmen thinks she got her grey eyes from her dad, right? But what if she actually got them from her mom? Because there is another character who has the same eyes as Carmen, and that's Player. So, suppose Carmen's mom - thinking that she lost both Dexter and her daughter - travels aimlessly for a while and ends up settling in Canada. Eventually she meets someone else and starts a new family. A normal one that isn't going to be targeted by VILE or Interpol. And she has Player. (remember that he is four years younger than Carmen) So Player is actually Carmen's little brother which neither of them are aware of, until we finally meet Player's mom who (somehow) recognises Carmen. Also I really want Player and Carmen to simultaneously go "wait my mom was your mom the whole time???" It would be adorable. Unlike getting shot.


	5. Chapter 5

The ride to the hospital couldn't have taken more than five minutes, but it had felt even longer than the hours Carmen had spent freezing in the ravine outside Stockholm. But now it was Julia who was slipping away, her breathing growing weaker and more difficult by the moment as she drifted into unconsciousness despite the thief's attempts to keep her awake, and Carmen felt just as helpless as she had then. She had been vaguely aware of Zari's voice but the agent seemed to be speaking to someone else, her words sharp and decisive as if giving a report. For all Carmen knew that was exactly what the woman was doing, but she was too concerned with making sure that Julia was still breathing to pay attention to Zari. As long as Julia got to a hospital, Carmen didn't care if she walked out of the car and straight into police custody.

And for a moment it seemed like that was exactly what was going to happen. As the car pulled up by a glass covered walkway in front of an enormous pale building, several figures were already waiting there and approached as the vehicle stopped and Zari stepped out. But a quick glance immediately told Carmen that these weren't law enforcement even before the rear door was opened - these were hospital staff. Carmen didn't need to be told that the best thing she could do now was get out of the way - she immediately darted out of the vehicle to let them see to Julia, standing to one side with Zari. She could feel the agent's eyes on her but Carmen's own gaze was fixed on the medics as they carefully slid a board beneath Julia's body to move her out of the car and onto the waiting gurney. The process seemed to take an agonisingly long time even though it could only have been minutes. As they wheeled the injured woman into the hospital's main entrance, Carmen followed them.

Blood was starting to drip slowly from the sides of the stretcher, leaving a crooked trail of crimson droplets on the grey stone of the walkway. Carmen shuddered as she passed it.

As she entered the building, Carmen registered that it was brighter and warmer than outside but nothing else. She could only catch glimpses of Julia through the press of bodies around the gurney - seeing the momentary flash of metal blades, then hearing fabric tear as Julia's clothes were unceremoniously cut open and pushed aside. Then, as the stretcher turned a corner and was moved through a set of double doors, an arm flashed out to bar her way.

"...go in there." Carmen only caught the last of what was being said to her by the owner of the arm - a tall man wearing a uniform instead of a white coat or scrubs. Presumably security, but Carmen didn't really care - all that mattered right now was that he was in her way, looking down at her with what appeared to be sympathy. Good. He wouldn't expect the kidney punch which would put him on his back. Taking a quick step to the side, Carmen drew back her right fist - keeping her arm low so that the guard wouldn't guess her intentions until the last possible moment...

...then just before it could snap forwards, a hand closed firmly on her upper arm from behind and held it in a vice grip as Carmen was dragged several paces back along the corridor. Zari. The security guard - blissfully unaware of how close he'd come to painful incapacitation - moved back to where he'd been sitting by the doors and paid no more attention to them.

"If you get yourself arrested here, I won't be able to help you." Zari's voice was a low growl in Carmen's ear. "Trust me, you do not want to end up in NYPD custody."

The agent might have been right but Carmen tried to pull free from her grasp all the same, her eyes fixed on the doors that Julia had been taken through. "But Jules... I can't just leave her." Her voice came out as a plaintive whine but Carmen was past caring about how pathetic she sounded.

"You don't have a choice. There's nothing you can do to help her right now anyway." Zari's words were brutally direct, but surprisingly gentle. "Come on, there'll be somewhere you can-" As the agent took hold of Carmen's left arm as well, the thief recoiled automatically with a hiss of pain that turned into a yelp as Zari pushed the remains of her sleeve up to her shoulder. "Were you going to mention that at any point?" she sighed.

There was a dark, ugly gash across Carmen's upper arm, just below the curve of her deltoid. She blinked at it in surprise, then remembered feeling something catch her there as Julia had pushed her to the ground. Carmen guessed that it must have been inflicted by the same bullet that had torn through Julia's body. The one that had been aimed for her. This time Carmen didn't resist when Zari tugged at her uninjured arm, and let the older woman lead her back to the hospital's main entrance. The wound was starting to throb, as if the sight of it had reminded her body that it existed, but it barely penetrated the cold numbness that enveloped her. If not for Julia, she'd probably be lying dead back at the UN gardens.

* * *

An indeterminable amount of time later Carmen was curled on her side on a couch in a quiet waiting area. There had been questions from hospital staff but Zari had answered most of them until a concerned nurse had asked Carmen her name. Without thinking, the thief had automatically responded with the first syllable of 'Carmen', only just catching herself and amending it to 'Carol'. Zari had murmured something to the woman, who didn't press for a surname. Which was just as well, since Carmen's mind had drawn a blank there anyway.

She'd been taken to a small treatment room where a doctor had given her a shot of local anaesthetic in her shoulder, then cleaned and debrided the gash across her arm, picking out shreds of red fabric from the torn flesh. Once it was bandaged she'd gotten another shot - this time antibiotics - and instructions on how to clean and dress the wound along with a warning to watch for signs of infection. Afterwards, the same concerned nurse had given her a set of clean scrubs and let her into a private staff bathroom to change into them.

Getting out of the clothes she'd been wearing was difficult. The blood which had soaked through both her hooded top and jeans had started to dry and clot, making the fabric stiff and sticky. Carmen had to peel some patches away from her skin, flinching at the stains they left. The worst part was knowing that nearly all of it was Julia's blood. And despite cleaning herself up as best she could with paper towels, hot water, and hand sanitiser, she still couldn't get rid of it all - there were still traces of rusty red around her fingernails and gumming the tips of her ponytail. Part of her longed for a shower - a long, hot shower that would drive the coppery smell of blood away - but that would have to wait. Carmen had no intention of going anywhere until she knew that Julia was okay.

So now she was waiting, staring out of the window at the dark sky outside, vaguely wondering what time it was. Carmen could have checked her phone, presumably still in the inner pocket of her hoodie, but couldn't find the energy to reach into the plastic bag containing her bloodstained clothes to retrieve it. Exhaustion had started to bear down on her like a heavy, suffocating weight, but there was no question of her sleeping now. When she closed her eyes all she could see was Julia's pale face twisting in agony.

A weight settling on the couch beside her made Carmen raise her head. Zari again. Carmen half expected the agent to take the opportunity to cuff her, but she didn't. Zari was still wearing what was left of her suit; although blood was spotted across her shirt and pants, it was nowhere near the amount that had soaked into Carmen's clothes. Green eyes flashed towards her momentarily before Zari began to talk in a quiet undertone that carried no further than Carmen's ears.

"I told them your name is Carol Santiago," Zari began, her mouth barely moving. "I gave them Argent's real name and details in case they need her medical records. Your cover story is that you're both tourists here to celebrate your engagement. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not that unusual in this damn city."

"Engagement?" Carmen's voice was a rusty croak as she felt something twist painfully inside her. "Why engagement?"

"Because you don't look related and it was the best thing I could think of at short notice," the woman replied, still in the same soft murmur. "It means they should treat you as next of kin, which I assumed you'd want."

There was a long, painful silence as Carmen drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "Why are you helping me?" she asked eventually. "Shouldn't you be arresting me?"

"I probably should," Zari stated bluntly. "But whoever was shooting at you was shooting at me as well. So I think that puts us on the same side for now."

Carmen didn't reply, thinking over those words as her gaze returned to the darkness outside the windows. If the Chief had been behind the attempt to kill her - which she was doubting more and more - obviously Zari hadn't known about it. Maybe the Chief hadn't wanted any other witnesses, but that implied a level of ruthlessness that Carmen didn't think the woman possessed. The Chief might have killed her father, but murdering one of her own loyal operatives was a different story. She could easily have believed VILE was behind it... but how could they have known about the meeting with ACME? Or maybe the whole thing was some kind of power play by someone inside ACME who wanted to discredit the Chief and take her place. After all, Carmen had grown up hearing whispered, gruesome stories about how Professor Maelstrom had claimed his seat on the Faculty. He'd needed one of those seats to be empty first.

"It could be hours before you get an update on Argent's condition." Zari's voice broke through Carmen's increasingly dark thoughts and she raised her head to see that the agent was looking at her with a compassion Carmen wanted to resent. "They have rooms for family to stay in here, maybe you should-"

"I'm not going anywhere." Carmen's response was immediate and unequivocal. "Not until I know that Jules is going to be okay or..." She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, as if merely mentioning the prospect of Julia dying would somehow make it happen.

"All right." Zari didn't press the issue, getting back to her feet instead. "I need to report in and hopefully find out what the hell was going on back there. Please don't assault anyone while I'm gone."

Carmen glanced up at her with a mirthless smile. "Aren't you going to warn me not to leave the area?" she asked bitterly.

"You literally just said you weren't going anywhere," the agent replied. "It seemed redundant." With that, Zari turned and walked away. Carmen didn't bother to watch where she went, settling her head back down on the couch instead.

At this hour, the hospital was quiet. Most emergency patients didn't come through the main doors anyway; the ambulances had a different entrance. Although Carmen heard the occasional siren, they seemed distant. Instead she could hear the low hum of air conditioning, voices talking quietly over by the reception desk, the buzz of an automatic floor scrubber, her own breathing.

And then, faintly, an anguished, pleading voice. Carmen couldn't make out the words, but the sound seemed to be coming from beneath her. Where her clothes were. As she reached down to pick up the bag, Carmen realised that she knew that voice and with a start she sat upright as she fumbled in the pockets of her hoodie. Finding her earring communicator, feeling it vibrating gently in her hand, Carmen hesitated then carefully placed it back in her ear.

_"...please... please just tell me you're okay, Red."_ Player sounded even younger than he had the first time they'd ever spoken, his voice cracked and quivering, barely able to force the words out between sobs. _"You've got to be okay. You can't be..."_ The sentence was choked off by a stifled wail.

It took a couple of moments for Carmen to gather the courage to answer, guilt twisting in her belly like a knife. She'd never heard Player sound so distraught, all of his teenage bravado stripped away leaving only a frightened boy behind. He must have thought she was dead. Which meant the same probably went for the rest of her crew. "I'm here, Player," she said, staring down at the floor between her feet. "I'm sorry if you-" Carmen didn't get any further, cut off by a ragged gasp at the other end of the line.

_"Carmen!"_ Player's hoarse yell made her recoil slightly - to no avail as the earring moved with her. _"You're okay! Ohmygodyou'reokay."_ If anything, the noises he was making now made Carmen feel even worse - painful-sounding gasps of near-hysterical laughter interspersed with huge, racking sobs. _"Don't ever do that again. I thought you were hurt. I thought you were dead!"_ There was a rattling thud over the comm, which sounded suspiciously like Player faceplanting into his keyboard as he continued to both laugh and cry.

"I'm sorry," Carmen repeated, with the uneasy feeling that she was going to have to deal with a similar situation once she got in touch with Zack and Ivy. "I can explain - when we met with ACME..." She tailed off as she heard another voice in the background - a woman's voice demanding to know what on earth was going on. Player's mom. Carmen heard him starting to reply, then the line went dead. Given how Player had sounded, she could only guess at what his mother must be thinking.

Reaching back into the bag, Carmen retrieved her phone and pulled it out. There were thirty six missed calls, almost as many voicemails, and a dozen texts. Mostly from Ivy, Zack, and Shadowsan, but there were a couple from Player's burner phone too - obviously he must have tried to call her when he couldn't get through on the comm. The last call was from Zack and after a moment's pause Carmen braced herself and returned it. The phone only rang for a split second before it was answered.

_"Carm? Is that you?!"_ Like Player, Zack's voice was hoarse, but filled with desperate hope.

"It's me Zack, I-" Again, Carmen didn't get the chance to finish. She heard a muffled exclamation that sounded like Ivy, a rush of footsteps, then the thud of bodies colliding and a jarring rattle that suggested the other phone had been dropped onto a hard surface. Following this there was the unmistakeable sounds of a fight to be the first to grab the device, a yelp that sounded like Zack, then the phone was picked up again.

_"Carm!"_ This time it was Ivy on the line, laughing breathlessly with that familiar edge of hysteria she'd heard in Player's voice. _"You're okay? You're not hurt?"_ Dimly, Carmen could hear the sounds of struggling and muffled protests from Zack, and guessed that Ivy had her younger brother in a headlock.

"I'm fine," Carmen replied, unable to stop the faint smile from stealing across her face. "Please let Zack go before he suffocates." She heard sounds of movement and a grunt followed shortly by another brief scuffle. "Just put the phone on speaker!" There was another few seconds of awkward fumbling, then things finally seemed to settle.

_"We thought you were dead, Carm,"_ Ivy's voice shook as she spoke, the words catching in her throat. _"Player said he'd heard a shot while you were meeting with ACME, then these awful screams..."_ Her words faded into a long, quivering exhalation.

Feeling a shudder run through her, Carmen closed her eyes. Those agonised screams would haunt her.

_"Then he said he heard more shots and you muttered something and then the line went quiet,"_ Zack continued for his sister. He sounded just as shaky as Ivy had. _"We tried to call you, but you didn't answer and..."_ An ugly, harsh sob caught in his throat. _"That's gotta be nearly three hours ago now."_

Three hours. Somehow that simultaneously managed to be much longer than Carmen had thought and not nearly long enough. "I'm so sorry guys," she apologised, her own voice breaking. The guilt over leaving her friends in the dark for so long was only compounded by the guilt she felt over being able to sit here reassuring them that she was okay while Julia was fighting for her life. "Something happened that-" Carmen paused, frowning, as she realised something she'd missed. "Wait, where's Shadowsan? He's not with you?"

_"Nah,"_ Ivy replied, sounding as if she was crying again and trying to hide it. _"He went out 'bout an hour ago."_

_"Told us to stay here and wait for an update from Player,"_ Zack added. _"We didn't argue 'cause we were kinda, uh, freakin' out."_

_"He coulda said he was goin' to the moon and we wouldn't have questioned it,"_ Ivy chuckled tearfully.

"I better call him in case he's planning something." The relief that Carmen felt over avoiding having to explain that Julia had been the one hurt was treacherous. "Player knows I'm fine, but I think I might have got him in trouble with his parents. Sit tight, okay?"

_"Be careful boss,"_ Zack told her, his voice thick. There was a faint sound of shuffling movement, and Carmen guessed that one of the siblings had moved to put their arm around the other.

"I will." Ending the call, Carmen sat back for a moment to gather her thoughts. Shadowsan could be on the way to New York already; he'd want to see the situation with his own eyes before taking action. Then again, if he believed she was dead, well, who knew where he could be going? Taking a deep breath, Carmen dialed his number. Like Zack's, it was answered immediately.

_"Yes?"_ Shadowsan's voice was brusque, impatient. He would surely have seen that the call was coming from her phone... but naturally he wouldn't assume it was Carmen who was at the other end of the line.

"It's me, Shadowsan," Carmen's statement was short and to the point. "I'm fine. Sorry for dropping off the grid."

There was a long, slow sigh in response and a few moments of silence. Carmen thought she could hear distant public announcements in the background. _"I am relieved to know you are unharmed,"_ Shadowsan replied eventually, with an uncharacteristic tremor in his voice. In its own way it was just as bad as hearing the others cry. _"I have been following the news in New York - there were reports of shots fired at the United Nations."_

"There were." This time it was Carmen's voice which was cracking. "Someone tried to shoot me." Shadowsan didn't reply, but his silence was a query in itself. "Julia pushed me out of the way. They shot her instead." Carmen swallowed hard, remembering the shout of warning, the sudden impact of Julia's body with hers. The harder impact that had been the bullet meant for her striking the other woman instead.

Shadowsan's breath hissed through his teeth in a sharp inhalation. _"How bad?"_ he asked shortly.

"Bad," Carmen whispered, feeling the familiar burn of tears sting her eyes. "The bullet went right through her. We got her to a hospital and they took her straight into surgery but there's been no word since."

_"We?"_ Shadowsan queried. Carmen knew he would be able to hear her crying, but he made no acknowledgement of it. She was grateful for that.

"Me and Agent Zari," she explained. "The Chief didn't come in person, just like you said, but Zari was there and whoever shot at me was shooting at her too. So she helped me. I don't know whether to think ACME was behind it if they shot at her too, but if it was VILE then how-"

_"That is a discussion we should have in person."_ Shadowsan's interruption was blunt and decisive. _"Where are you now?"_

"At the hospital," Carmen replied. "I'm not going anywhere until I know Julia is okay."

_"Good."_ The response was typically abrupt. _"We'll come to you."_

"We?" Carmen asked, unconsciously echoing Shadowsan's earlier question. "You don't need to bring Zack and Ivy, it could be dangerous."

The grunt at the other end of the line spoke volumes. _"If I don't, they'll bring themselves. There is safety in numbers. I will let you know when to expect us. Be vigilant."_ With that, the call ended.

"Goodbye to you too," Carmen muttered, rubbing the back of her free hand across her eyes. As much as she hated the thought of all of them being here and potentially in harm's way, there was something comforting in the idea too. And Shadowsan was right about safety in numbers.

Sinking back down onto her side, Carmen curled back into her previous position - this time with her phone tucked between her arms. A moment later, she felt it vibrate, and looked down to see that she had a text message from Ivy.

**_'don't listen 2 voicemails wicked dumb now'  
_ **

* * *

Despite everything, Carmen must have slept. Feeling a hand shake her shoulder, the thief opened her eyes to see that the sky outside was no longer pitch black - it had lightened to a dirty grey. Twilight. Automatically swinging herself around to sit up on the couch as she rubbed her eyes, Carmen saw Agent Zari standing over her. From the look of the older woman she hadn't slept at all and was feeling it. For once, Carmen actually felt a flicker of sympathy for her. It felt somewhat odd, especially considering that the thief had once watched the agent get knocked out by a blow to the head without any regrets.

"Chief's already on her way from Seattle," As always, Zari got straight to the point. "Flight lands in two hours but I'd imagine she'll want to question the shooter before she comes here."  
  
"Wait, so you actually have the shooter?" Carmen asked, surprised by that revelation. "When you said they were down, I thought you meant dead." It was the first good news she'd heard all night - it meant she might actually get some answers. "Do you know who they are?"

Zari's grimace was enough of a response in itself even before she spoke. "Yes and no - I couldn't get a straight answer out of Devineaux. They were in a position where one of our agents was supposed to be stationed. Whether they _are_ that agent or whether they killed them is the part that's not clear. I-" Zari paused, apparently remembering where she was and who she was talking to. "...should not be talking about this," she finished instead. "If the Chief wants to share those details, she'll tell you herself. Unless you want to leave before she arrives." Zari's eyes flicked away as she shifted uncomfortably in the attitude of someone confronting an unpleasant truth. "If you leave, I won't stop you. Just try to do it without me seeing you."

"Gee, maybe I should get shot at more often," Carmen remarked with a morbid chuckle before becoming serious once more. "I already told you I'm not going anywhere. I'll take my chances with your boss. Besides, I would _really_ like to know more about whoever tried to kill me."

"I thought that might be the case," Zari replied with a shrug. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need some more godawful vending machine coffee."

As the woman started to turn, something she'd said clicked in Carmen's mind. "Wait, did you say Devineaux? I thought he wasn't here?"  
  
"No, he just wasn't at the meeting. You already guessed we had other agents in the area, and he was one of them." Zari considered that for a moment, then shook her head with a rueful snort. "Just as well, he's the only idiot I know who'd think that charging an active shooter was a good idea."

"He did wh-" Before Carmen could finish the question, it died on her lips as she saw a movement nearby. A man in scrubs and a white coat was approaching them and suddenly her mouth was dry. She tried to read his expression, but everything she'd learned in Maelstrom's class was only a distant memory, slipping further away the more she tried to focus.

"Ms Santiago?" the man asked as he reached them. Carmen nodded silently. Once - long ago, it seemed - she would have been able to tell if the news was good or bad the moment he spoke. Now she had no idea. "Your fiancée is out of surgery. If you would like to come with me, I can give you more details."

With another wordless nod, Carmen rose to her feet - her legs feeling like stilts - and followed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Player is going to be going grey before he can legally drink alcohol and it will be all Carmen's fault. Also I actually really like Zari. Then again, I like everyone in this show. Except Roundabout. Fuck that guy.


	6. Chapter 6

The intensive care unit would have been even quieter than the waiting room, if not for the constant background hum of medical equipment and the electronic chirps of the monitors. The regular double-thump of the ventilator sounded almost like a slow heartbeat, rhythmic and soothing, and several times Carmen had found herself jerking awake with a start as her head began to droop. Less than a fortnight ago she'd been lying next to Julia in Poitiers, listening to the other woman's breathing as she slept. Now she was in New York listening to a machine breathe for her.

Apart from the mechanical rise and fall of her chest, Julia was motionless. The bed had been partially raised to elevate her upper body, barely covered by a loose hospital gown, the blankets pulled back to her waist. Her torso was a mess of tubes, monitoring leads, and surgical dressings, her right arm strapped into place and immobilised across her midriff. Her face was still unnaturally pale, but no longer the horrible ashen shade it had been when they'd first arrived - not entirely surprising when she'd had most of her blood volume replaced via rapid infuser. Even now a unit was still being pumped into Julia's body through an intravenous line just below her collarbone on the left side of her chest. Another went into her left elbow. There was a third cannula in the back of Julia's left hand, but it wasn't connected to anything at present. Carmen was still careful not to touch it as she held her hand.

The surgeon had explained Julia's condition gently, obviously thinking that he was talking to her traumatised fiancée. It didn't make the details any easier to hear. The bullet had torn through Julia's right lung, collapsing it as well as lacerating a major vein. Worse still, both entry and exit wounds had shattered ribs, the broken bones inflicting even more damage on delicate pulmonary tissue. The shot had fractured her right shoulder blade going in, and broken her right clavicle going out. But for all that, if it had gone through the left side of her chest at the same angle, Julia would have most likely been dead in minutes from catastrophic blood loss.

For all her VILE training, Carmen only had a basic grasp of firearms. VILE discouraged their use; guns and ammunition were often difficult to transport across international borders, drew attention and - in Maelstrom's words - encouraged operatives to rely on them rather than their own talents. Killing was best done quickly and _quietly_. Even better if it could be made to look like an accident - the Crackle Rod left no evidence behind and any casualties looked like victims of heart failure. Carmen knew more about what kind of injuries were inflicted on people who were shot - VILE operatives were more likely to be on the receiving end of gunfire from security guards and Coach Brunt's class on 'Why You Don't Want To Get Shot' had been both brutal and graphic.

High velocity rounds - like the one which had hit Julia - did horrible things to the human body. What little skin was visible between the dressings on the right side of her chest was already turning an angry red - within a day or two it would be one enormous bruise. Just above it, the break in Julia's collarbone was obvious - a sharp angle protruding against the skin where it should have been smooth. Carmen remembered kissing her there back in the hotel room when they had thought that the worst thing that could happen would be having to cut their stay short if Carmen had to run from ACME.

It was hard for Carmen to look at Julia's still face. It was no longer twisted in pain, but instead her mouth was being held open by the endotracheal tube that had been inserted into her throat and taped into place to keep her breathing. It forced Julia's face into a vacant, slack-jawed expression that Carmen found deeply upsetting. Much easier to look at the limp hand in hers instead.

Despite her grave condition though, the surgeon was optimistic about Julia's recovery. She had already beaten the odds in the trauma bay - her heart had stopped while the doctors were still trying to establish the extent of her injuries and her chest had been cracked open in a desperate attempt to resuscitate her and control the bleeding. Only a small percentage of patients survived the procedure, and Julia had been lucky enough to be one of them. They'd nearly lost her again in the operating theatre, but somehow she'd managed to stubbornly cling to life. If she recovered, it would be a long, slow process. But having made it this far the odds were back in Julia's favour.

Occasionally one of the machines would chime or buzz for no reason that Carmen could see, but it put her on edge all the same. A female nurse came in at regular intervals to examine the displays - Carmen knew that one of them was a heart monitor but wasn't sure what the others were recording - take notes and sometimes make adjustments to the ventilator. Besides quietly asking Carmen if she needed anything the woman hadn't tried to talk to her, for which she was duly grateful. So when the door opened some time later, Carmen barely noticed. Until she realised that whoever had entered the room was still standing by the door.

Gently placing Julia's hand down on the bed, Carmen straightened up in her chair and turned slowly. She wasn't surprised to see that the intruder was the ACME chief, or that she was there in person for once. What was surprising was that she was alone, just as she'd been when they'd met in Seattle. But back then the woman had still carried herself with that same sanctimonious confidence that had made Carmen lose her temper back at the UN gardens. Now she just looked tired.

For several moments, the two regarded each other. Carmen reached for that well of icy fury that had sprung up inside her ever since finding out the truth about her father, but for once she couldn't find it. Instead of a cold sneer, all she could manage was a half-hearted, weary glare. The Chief looked away all the same, wordlessly moving to stand on the other side of Julia's bed and looking at the injured woman instead. Carmen caught a flicker of sorrow in her amber eyes and hated that she felt an answering flare of sympathy.

"Argent hasn't woken up yet?" the older woman asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"The doctors are keeping her sedated," Carmen replied, her voice tight. "They want to operate again to stabilise her ribs once she's had twelve hours to recover from the last surgery."

"Ah." The Chief gave a brief nod of acknowledgement then paused, thinking. "Do you know anything about her parents?" she asked, with an odd, almost nervous edge to her voice.

Carmen frowned, finding the question strange - though it did strike her that despite talking to Julia about her own parents, the subject of the other woman's family had never come up. "No," she answered, truthfully. "Why?"

The Chief's mouth seemed to tighten for a moment, then she shrugged. "It's not important," she said, then sighed. "I'm truly sorry this happened," the Chief added quietly. "Seeing anyone get hurt was the last thing I wanted. Even worse that it was under my watch."

"What do you mean?" Carmen's words were sharp and unforgiving. She had decided not to reveal that Agent Zari had let anything slip about the shooter, figuring that she owed the woman that much at least. "How was it under your watch?"  
  
Taking a deep breath, the Chief turned away to look out the window at the late morning bustle of the city streets. "ACME was infiltrated," she replied with another sigh. "I don't think I need to tell you who I suspect was behind it."

Carmen was silent as she thought the woman's words over and wondered whether to take them at face value. If ACME wanted her dead but didn't want to admit to it, VILE was an easy and believable scapegoat. But if ACME wanted her dead, Zari had passed up the perfect opportunity back at the UN. If the agent had come around the statue with a gun drawn, she could have easily finished the job the shooter started. Unless the plan to kill her was entirely of the Chief's own devising... but that just didn't feel right, even knowing that the woman had killed her father. That hadn't been a planned assassination after all. Not like VILE sending Shadowsan to eliminate Dexter Wolfe had been.

"You're sure it was infiltration?" she asked eventually. "VILE has a lot of money behind them, maybe they've been buying your organisation out from under you." Carmen had intended the query as a barb and from the way the Chief's back stiffened she could tell it had landed.

"Yes." There was anger in the Chief's response, but it was tightly controlled. I vet all of my agents personally. If I have any doubts I either don't recruit them, or cut them loose. Besides," she continued, her shoulders slumping as the irritation in her voice drained away. "We searched the apartment of the agent who was replaced and found his body. Forensics think he's been dead for weeks."

That revelation made Carmen start with a sharp hiss of breath and a sharper pang of guilt. "I'm sorry," she said softly, feeling a stab of chagrin at apologising to the woman who'd killed her father.

"You're not the one who should be sorry," the Chief replied, turning back to face her. Either the woman was an incredible actress or the grief and remorse in her expression was genuine. "Like I said, it happened under my watch. Not yours."

"VILE would have targeted you because of me though," Carmen protested, hating the empathy she felt for the older woman.

"Maybe," the Chief admitted. "But I've been chasing them for longer than you've been alive. They were bound to take notice eventually. Perhaps they thought they could ki-" She choked on the word, her gaze flickering to Julia's still body. " _Get_ two birds with one stone."

That _did_ sound more like VILE. Carmen wondered if they had finally decided to cut their losses and deal with her permanently, subverting ACME in the process. It wasn't a pleasant prospect, but even worse was the thought of who else might get hurt in the crossfire. They already wanted Shadowsan dead, they didn't know about Player - she hoped - but then there was Zack and Ivy. One or both of them could end up like Julia, or worse. "You're sure it was VILE?" The question was practically rhetorical, but Carmen asked it anyway.

"I'm..." The older woman faltered, looking away as a shadow flitted across her face. For a moment her expression was one of horror. "I'm sure," she said finally. "The infiltrator didn't admit it but... what happened while they were being interrogated was enough to persuade me."

"Tell me." If the Chief was offended by Carmen's brusque demand she didn't show it. Raising her head, she met Carmen's gaze. The thief wondered if the woman was even aware of the way she had straightened up and squared her shoulders, or if the action was so deeply ingrained that it was reflexive.

"We had three other agents in the field besides Zari," the Chief began, as if delivering a formal report. "Devineaux, Collins, and Stark. Devineaux and Collins were on the ground. Stark was on the roof of the Japan Centre on East 47th Street. I was more or less convinced that the meeting you'd requested was going to be some kind of trick or a trap, so Zari and Collins were to keep watch on you while Devineaux and Stark watched the area for any of your associates. Stark - or rather, the person who'd replaced him - was the shooter." The woman closed her eyes momentarily, breathing out heavily.

Carmen looked away, almost unconsciously reaching out to take Julia's hand again. "They were using a laser sight," she said, remembering how it had tinted the Chief's holographic image with a rosy pink glow. "Julia must have noticed it from where she was standing."

The Chief nodded in agreement. "I don't doubt that she did, Argent is very perceptive. You were obviously the main target, though that might only be because I wasn't there in person. They also tried to kill Zari as well, which suggests to me that they wanted to replace her as well. Either themselves, or with another operative. I'm fairly sure I would have been next. Then VILE could have done what they liked with ACME."

The thought was a chilling one - Carmen could only imagine what the Faculty could do with their own covert law enforcement agency. Roundabout had plenty of experience operating from behind the scenes after all, assuming he hadn't fallen from grace after London. They could have used ACME to cover their own crimes or to target rival operations. Or to aid their own operatives in slipping through the net, just as Roundabout had used his position in the British Secret Service. "How did they manage to disguise themselves as your agent?" Carmen already had an unpleasant suspicion of how that particular feat had been managed, but she was hoping she was wrong.

"Some kind of holographic technology," the Chief replied, and Carmen groaned inwardly. Bellum. "Similar to ACME's own, but designed to go over the head like a mask and look like the target. They had to be conscious for it to work though. Devineaux went to investigate the shots thinking Stark had been overpowered, nearly got shot for his trouble, then managed to overpower the person he thought was Stark anyway. I may have to take back most of the things I've said about that man," she added in an undertone. "Devineaux knocked the shooter out, then the disguise dropped. They were young. Younger than you. Teenage boy."

One of this year's class no doubt, like Spinkick and Flytrap. Then Carmen realised what tense the Chief had used when describing them. "Were?" she queried. Maybe ACME had decided that lethal force was justified after all. Given what had happened to Julia, Carmen found it hard to condemn them.

The older woman closed her eyes, that same flicker of horror passing over her features. "When they were being interrogated something... happened. He told us his name was 'Carnevale' but he wouldn't answer any other questions we put to him. Then I asked if he was working for VILE and..." The Chief's voice hitched, her voice distant. "The moment I asked I knew something had gone wrong. He seemed to jerk, like hearing the name had surprised him, then he went into a seizure. He was dead in seconds from what appeared to be a massive brain aneurysm. Like someone had just... switched him off."

Carmen wanted to believe the woman was lying to her, but at the same time she knew what had happened to Gray when he was no further use to VILE. Maybe now that Roundabout was no longer in a position to easily orchestrate the release of captured operatives, the Faculty had chosen a more permanent solution to silence them. Or maybe this was what they were doing with operatives that were deemed to be expendable. "So what happens now?" she asked. "Are you going to arrest me?"

"No." The answer was simple and categorical. "Given what happened at the UN, I'm prepared to believe that we're on the same side now. But-" As the older woman glanced at her, Carmen was surprised to see the depth of the regret in her eyes. "After what you told me back there, I understand if you don't agree."

"You killed my father." The words were out before Carmen could stop them, though now they sounded more like a statement than an accusation.

"I did," the Chief admitted, holding Carmen's gaze. There was no hint of self-righteousness or pride in the woman's voice and for an instant Carmen was back in San Diego listening to Shadowsan tell her how he had considered himself a soldier in service to VILE. He had sounded exactly the same. "I never knew Dexter Wolfe had a partner, much less a child," the Chief continued. "All I knew was that he was to be considered armed and dangerous. But that still doesn't excuse my actions that day. I made a terrible misjudgement and your father died because of it. And I regret it to this day. I regretted it the moment I pulled the trigger." She looked away as her eyes glistened wetly, raising one hand to rub them. "I'm so sorry. More than you could ever know."

Part of Carmen wanted to sneer at the woman's apology. To spit on it and throw it back in her teeth. And maybe she would have, if not for the thought that Julia had nearly died so that she could hear it. Reconciling with ACME felt like betraying the father she had never known... but it wasn't ACME who had killed him, it was Tamara Fraser. Who had created ACME with the strict rule that they could only use nonlethal weapons so nobody else had to die. "Maybe I can still work with you," she said eventually. "But I don't know if I can forgive you."

"I wouldn't expect you to," the Chief replied. There was no bitterness in her voice, only calm acceptance. "I'm not going to ask you to work with ACME either, at least not now. It would be safer for you if you didn't." Anger was slowly creeping back into the woman's words. "I have no idea how deeply ACME has been compromised. Or if Stark was the only agent replaced. I still have some agents I can trust, but until I know the organisation is secure VILE could use us to keep track of you." She hesitated, glancing at Julia then back at Carmen. "If they are, it's only a matter of time before they find out you're here. And why."

"I... what are you getting at?" Carmen growled, not without some uneasiness.

"It's obvious to me now why Argent chose to leave ACME." The Chief's statement was simple, without any outrage or suspicion. "She had to choose between her career and you. She chose you, since she had the integrity not to try and pursue both. Anyone with access to ACME's files might come to the same conclusion if they knew that you were here with her. You know VILE better than me - would they use her to hurt or extort you?"

_Yes. Absolutely yes._ Carmen didn't need time to consider that prospect, she already knew the answer. VILE had already tried to use Zack and Ivy as bargaining chips against her. They would do the same with Julia in an instant. And right now Julia was incredibly vulnerable. "You're saying I should just leave her here and go," she said, her voice trembling.

"Until I can be sure that anything ACME knows isn't being communicated back to VILE, yes," the older woman replied. "I can have either Zari or Devineaux with her at all times. That wouldn't be unexpected given the circumstances of how she was injured. But you being here with her would definitely get their attention."

The Chief was right, but that didn't make things any easier for Carmen. And what would Julia think when she woke up and Carmen was gone? _'Better that than she doesn't wake up at all.'_ Black Sheep's voice was just as unwelcome now as it had been before. _'How can you protect her if any of the hospital staff could be a VILE operative? Are you going to interrogate them all?'_ Making her decision, Carmen squeezed Julia's hand gently then stood up. "You'll make sure someone's here with her?" she asked.

The Chief nodded. "Absolutely." She reached into her breast pocket, making Carmen suspect that the woman was going to give her another damn pen. She bristled at the thought. But instead, the Chief handed her a folded scrap of paper. Glancing at it, Carmen saw that the only information on it was a single phone number. "If you need to get in touch," the Chief explained. "It's a burner phone, not connected to ACME's network. It'll be here and either Devineaux or Zari will answer."

Carmen already had her own plans on how she'd keep an eye on Julia, but those involved Player and she was hardly going to tell the Chief about them. She nodded instead. "I'll keep that in mind." Turning her back on Julia's bed was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do, but somehow she managed it and stepped out of the room. The animal instinct in her was screaming that she shouldn't leave Julia alone with that woman, but as she looked back through the glass observation panel in the wall she could see the Chief watching Julia with that same sorrowful regret she'd seen earlier. As a result, she managed to walk straight into Devineaux.

Just as Carmen had done with the Chief, the two of them regarded each other for a few seconds. But this time, the interaction was awkward rather than resentful. Instead of screaming ' _la femme rouge_!' at her, Devineaux looked away as he ran one hand through his typically wild hair.

"I... ah... I am very sorry that Julia was injured," he said at last, looking everywhere except at Carmen. "And that I never listened to her. And that I treated her poorly. I believe now that she was right about you. Always."

A faint smile tugged at the side of Carmen's mouth. Regardless of her feelings about the Chief and ACME, she had developed an odd fondness for the man. "Thanks, Devineaux. I was told you were the idiot who thought charging a gunman was a good idea."

"Eh, _pas grave_." Devineaux made a dismissive gesture, apparently taking no offence at being referred to as an idiot. "Rifles are shit at close range anyway."

Glancing back towards Julia's room to make sure the Chief was still there, Carmen quickly removed her earring and held it out to him, making a mental note to let Player know. "Can you please give this to Jules when she wakes up? I don't want her to think I just abandoned her here. I'm only leaving because I want to keep her safe. She means a lot to me." The words came out in a hurried rush, and Carmen could feel her face flushing. "She'll know what it is. I'm trusting you not to do anything with it yourself."

Taking the earring carefully between finger and thumb, Devineaux looked at it curiously for a moment, then shrugged and dropped it into his shirt pocket. "Don't worry, I'm no good with these kind of gadgets anyway," he told her. "I will be sure to give it to Julia." He paused, as if considering something, then straightened up and clasped his hands behind his back. "Ms Sandiego," he began, his voice formal and uncharacteristically composed. "You know how long I have been chasing you. How many times I have nearly caught you. Well, thought I had nearly caught you," he amended quickly as he saw the sceptical look on her face. "But I believe it is time to put that behind us. Like Britain and France, we need to forget old grudges and make an Entente Cordiale against a greater foe, no?" He held out a hand towards her.

If the Chief had offered the same gesture Carmen would have refused it. But Devineaux was a different story. Even so, she was still mildly surprised when she took his outstretched hand and shook it and didn't immediately get cuffs slapped around her wrist.

For once there was no trace of arrogance in Devineaux's smile, only genuine gladness. " _Bon_. _Au revoir_ , Ms Sandiego. I hope the next time we meet is under better circumstances."

Carmen could only nod in response, feeling her throat tighten. Stepping around Devineaux, she quickly headed away along the corridor before she could do anything stupid like start crying. Feeling her phone buzz, she checked it to see that she had a message from Shadowsan informing her that Zack and Ivy had refused to stay behind and that their flight would arrive at JFK in five and a half hours. She sent a quick reply telling him that she would meet them there, then headed for the exit.

Leaving Julia might have made sense and it was the best way to ensure her safety. But Carmen hated herself for doing it all the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rip Carnevale, we barely knew ye.
> 
> The Entente Cordiale was a series of agreements made between Great Britain and France in 1904, ending the relative European isolation both countries had withdrawn into at the time. Although both countries had a history of conflict - especially between France and England, but also following the Napoleonic wars - this was set aside in the interest of having allies against the increasing power and influence of the expanding German state. This wasn't an official alliance between the two countries, instead it was more of an agreement to cooperate. Both countries may have hoped that this would discourage German aggression but thanks to the absolute powderkeg that was Europe in the early 20th century, this did not work out so well. But it did set the stage for Britain and France to ally in both world wars, something that would have been unthinkable in the 14th century.
> 
> This will be the last chapter posted before the final season of Carmen Sandiego drops on the 15th - although we are pretty firmly in AU territory and not canon compliant, events/revelations in the final season may affect what happens later. I mean, we might finally find out what Player's real name is and that is INCREDIBLY important.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is something of a beast, but here's what other people were doing while Carmen was having The Worst Night Of Her Life*.
> 
> (*so far)

_“I’m talking about Buenos Aires. Twenty years ago_.” Player winced at the sound of Carmen's voice through his headset. He had never heard her sound so angry and wondered if the real reason for the meeting was to start a fight with ACME.

“Uhm, Red?” he offered uneasily. “I thought you said you’d be diplomatic?”

 _“When you killed Dexter Wolfe_ ,” Carmen went on, giving no sign that she had heard him. _“When you killed my **father**.” _The last word was spat like a curse, and Player heard someone gasp. Not Carmen - who was breathing heavily as if she'd just run a marathon - but someone close by.

 _“Carmen!”_ The shout was faint and distant, but Player thought it was Julia and she sounded terrified. Had the Chief ordered ACME to attack in response to Carmen's accusation? _“Get **down**!”_ Julia's voice was much closer now. Player heard the bone-jarring thud of bodies colliding. And then the crack of a gunshot.

For a moment, Player sat frozen in his chair, paralysed by cold horror. All he could hear through the comm were gasps and struggling. Then there was another crack which was accompanied by a meaty thunk, like a fist hitting flesh. "Red! Carmen! What's going on?" There was no response besides ragged breathing and the sound of movement - and then he heard the first scream. Player had never heard _anyone_ scream like that, not even in the illicitly-streamed horror movies he'd watched at Halloween. The sound was one of absolute agony, not fear. And he had no idea who it had came from.

Another shot, then a static whine across the comm. More screams, the thump of running footsteps, the sound of something heavy being dragged, frantic breathing. A sudden, shockingly loud metallic clang. _“Oh no. No. No no no no no...”_ That was definitely Carmen but her voice was strained and choked as if she was in pain. Then a tearing sound.

"Carmen, talk to me!" Player was almost screaming himself; only the thought that his parents were sleeping across the hall held him back. "Were those gunshots? Is ACME shooting at you?" Checking Carmen's position on the map, he saw that she seemed to be behind the Good Defeats Evil statue now. Hopefully taking cover and not-

There was another scream, hoarser and weaker, then heavy breathing and a faint scuffling. "Carmen, tell me you're okay!" Player pleaded, his voice cracking like it hadn't done since middle school. "Are you hit?" The only response was a scrabbling sound, then everything went quiet. And stayed that way. "Carmen? _Carmen_?"

Silence was the only answer. Seconds ticked into minutes as Player stared at the map on the screen, Carmen's icon remaining still. _If she's okay, why hasn't she escaped?_ On another screen he tried to access the NYC CCTV network to try and get a visual but his hands were shaking so badly he kept fumbling the codes. Repeatedly glancing back at the map to see if Carmen had moved didn't help.

Then there was an earsplitting screech of electrical interference - for a moment Player seemed to hear multiple voices across the comm. None of them were Carmen, but one sounded like Devineaux. The sounds vanished with a sharp pop, then the comm was silent once more as Carmen's icon disappeared from the map screen.

"No..." Player breathed softly, his eyes wide. "Oh _no_..."

* * *

Zari glanced towards Argent as the woman headed for the security booth, but didn't move from her place by the Chief's side. She might have suspected a trap, but everything about Argent's body language suggested that she was the suspicious one. She probably had a right to be after Stockholm, though Zari wondered exactly what she was expecting - did she think ACME agents were going to pile out of the thing like it was a clown car? Come to think of it, maybe that's where they should have stationed Devineaux.

“I’m talking about Buenos Aires. Twenty years ago.” It was the tone of Sandiego's voice rather than the words themselves that immediately got Zari's attention. Pure rage, directly solely at the Chief, which was mirrored in the thief's eyes, her fists shaking by her sides. “When you killed Dexter Wolfe. When you killed my _father_.”

Now _that_ was something Zari hadn't expected to hear. Neither had the Chief from the way she gasped and took several steps back as if her holographic form had somehow been struck. But she didn't deny it. The woman who insisted on her agents using nonlethal weapons didn't deny killing a man. Maybe that explained them.

“Carmen, get _down_!” As Zari automatically turned in the direction of Julia's panicked shout she saw Sandiego doing the same from the corner of one eye. The woman was sprinting towards them, her face a mask of fear, but Zari's eyes immediately fixed on the red flash from East 47th Street instead. Recognition hit her like an icy fist to the gut - that was a laser sight. Then there was a brief, bright flash, the crack of a rifle shot, and the sharp thud of a high velocity round hitting a body.

Things began to move in slow motion; old habits dying hard. Zari saw the laser sight vanish and immediately looked for others. No time to think about who was shooting, the important thing was to pinpoint where the shot had come from and if there was more than one gunman. And in New York City every flash of light from buildings and vehicles was a potential second shot. _I hate this goddamn city._ That thought would be a recurring refrain in Zari's mind for the next few hours.

The laser sight reappeared, the faintest pink line of refracted light in the cold night air showing its path. Not at her - Zari turned her head to follow it, ignoring the instinct to take cover. Sandiego and Argent were on the ground, the red dot of the sight wavering across and around them as if it were unable to settle. The shooter was panicking. And inexperienced or stupid enough to use a laser sight at night. Another shot, but this one ploughed into the ground by Sandiego's head. That appeared to spur the thief back into action. She got to her feet pulling Argent with her... and the smaller woman shrieked in agony. From where she was standing, Zari could see a dark stain spreading across her back as Sandiego hesitated.

 _Don't move her!_ The words didn't even make it to Zari's lips - what the hell else was Sandiego supposed to do, leave Argent to be shot like a dog in the open? _But why wouldn't she do that?_ Sandiego always had an escape plan - always escaped, for that matter - and it seemed extremely unlikely that a severely injured casualty would be included in one. The thief was still dithering - obviously unsure whether to move the injured woman or not. Another shot snapped past the thief and that seemed to decide for her. With Argent over her shoulder, Sandiego half carried and half dragged her behind the huge statue of St George, just as another shot struck the head of the dragon with a discordant bong and a spray of sparks.

Looking back to where the shots had come from, Zari didn't have to look for very long to spot the laser sight. It spotted her instead, flickering across her torso. With a strangled curse, she leapt for the cover of the car as a bullet struck the spot where she'd been standing. _Now_ they were shooting at her.

The Chief's holographic projection was looking from the direction where the shots had come to the statue Sandiego had taken cover behind. "I need to see what's going on over there," she said urgently, then flinched as another scream split the night. Zari knew that the pen could project that far - the Chief could phase right through the statue if she wanted - but she wouldn't be able to see anything that the camera in the pen couldn't. A glance was enough to tell Zari that in the time it would take her to get from the cover of the car to the cover of the statue, the gunman would have time to take several shots at her. She weighed her odds.

"No," the Chief snapped, apparently guessing what Zari was thinking. "It's too far." She was probably right. The pen, however, was much closer - almost exactly halfway between the car and the security booth Argent had been so interested in earlier. And the red dot of the laser sight was currently crawling over the statue of Saint George, apparently waiting for Sandiego to show herself. Making up her mind, Zari tensed and then dived to the side, snatching up the pen then hurling it like a dart towards the side of the statue as it trailed twisting beams of blue light. She knew she'd only get one chance at the throw, and to her relief she saw it spear into the turf slightly beyond the sculpture.

As she rolled to a stop behind the security booth, Zari heard another shot, then was showered with fragments of safety glass as one of its windows was shattered by a bullet. Her relief evaporated as a second bullet punched a hole through the booth's panelling just above her. So much for cover. Going limp, she let herself drop to the ground as another shot burst through where her neck had been a moment earlier. Zari waited for a fourth shot, wondering grimly if the gunman would guess her position and compensate. If he did, at least it would probably be over quickly.

A glimmer of pink caught her eye, and Zari lifted her head slightly to get a better look. It was the Chief - her hologram had moved over to the statue and the blue light around her head was now a deep pink. _Do they think they can shoot her?_ Apparently the gunman did, as the rifle fired again and the holographic image distorted momentarily. The Chief whipped around, pointing, her expression changing from anguish to fury. Whatever she'd seen behind the statue hadn't been good.

“Zari!" The Chief's voice was a whipcrack. “East 47th – looks like it’s coming from the Japan Society. Is one of ours...” She didn't get to finish - with another shot both she and the pen projecting her image shattered in a pulse of electric blue light. _Yes. Stark._ Carefully raising one hand so that the movement wouldn't be seen through the booth, Zari tapped her comm.

"Collins, Devineux, where are you?"

* * *

"By the river, watching for boats." That was a lie, Devineaux was already heading to the meeting point in the UN gardens, but Zari didn't need to know that. "North of the UN. What is going on, did I hear gunshots? Was it a trap?" La Femme Rouge had never stooped to using firearms before, but there was a first time for everything.

 _"Yes, but I'm not sure who it's for,"_ Zari replied, her voice tight. _"They're coming from the Japan Society-"_

"That's where Agent Stark is!" Devineaux's rapid walk became a run. "Do you think something's happened to him?"

 _"Either something's happened to him or he decided to shoot at us_ ," Zari growled. _"Given that he shot at Sandiego first, I don't think she's behind it"_

"I shall find out," Reaching the intersection of East 48th Street where it met First Avenue, Devineaux sprinted across four lanes of traffic, vaulting the concrete barrier in the middle and completely ignoring the blare of horns. Zari was still saying something about not doing anything stupid but he ignored her as he glanced between East 48th Street and East 47th Street. Running straight up the latter was probably a bad idea - the Japan Society was only a few stories high, so Stark or whoever had overpowered him would still be able to see him coming before the building blocked their line of sight. Devineaux chose East 48th instead before cutting down the alley that connected the two - pressing close against the Japan Society building as he reached it.

Another shot rang out, directly overhead now, and as he glanced upwards Devineaux saw the barrel of a rifle pulling back. Not aimed at him - along the street towards the UN. And on the roof. Quickly moving around to the main door, Devineaux cursed as he found it was locked. But with the gunman on the roof - and the ambient noise of the city - hopefully that meant they wouldn't hear it being forced. Taking a few steps back to get some distance, Devineaux rushed forwards to shoulder charge the door and hurled himself at it to get his full weight behind the impact. The lock didn't give, but the door's glass panelling splintered into an opaque spiderweb of cracks. A couple of well-placed kicks later and Devineaux had made a hole big enough to struggle through, hearing the fabric of his suit tear in various places. He'd worry about that later.

Once inside, Devineaux's first instinct was to charge up the open-plan stairs in front of him. He successfully suppressed it, climbing them quietly instead. He had never been inside the building before - had no idea it even existed until tonight - and when the stairway ended on the first floor he looked around in momentary confusion until he saw a sign pointing to the fire escape. He followed it, finding himself in a stairwell which he immediately headed up. After another four floors, it ended in a simple, push-bar door that presumably opened onto the roof. Devineaux pushed it open and found himself looking out along East 47th Street towards the hideous statue in the UN Gardens.

He also found that the gunman crouched at the edge of the roof had turned to aim straight at him.

Devineaux's mind froze. All he could see was the rifle barrel and Stark's face behind it, coldly determined. Reflexes took over, and his knees gave way beneath him to drop him to the stairs as a bullet snapped through the space where he had been standing to bury itself in the brick wall of the stairwell. Rather than get up, Devineaux allowed himself to tumble backwards down the stairs like a child rolling down a hillside until he reached the door leading out to the floor below. Getting back to his feet he pressed his back to the wall, waiting to see if Stark would follow.

He didn't, instead Devineaux heard another two shots in quick succession and then a door slamming. After a moment's pause, Devineaux cautiously headed up once more, still keeping his back to the wall. As soon as he saw the door onto the roof he realised what Stark had done - shot the push-bar that opened the door, making it useless. Devineaux would have to force it if he wanted to get out that way again, and he didn't doubt that he'd be looking back down a gun barrel if he did.

Heading back down to the fifth floor, Devineaux tapped his comm. "Agent Zari? It appears that Agent Stark is indeed the shooter. What do you want me to do?"

An angry hiss of breath was Zari's immediate answer. _"Why the hell is he shooting at us?"_ she snarled. _"He's got me pinned down,"_ she continued, not waiting for an answer. _"I'm guessing there's no easy way for you to get to him without getting shot either."_

Devineaux glanced up the stairwell ruefully. "Not easily, no - as far as I can see there is only one door to the roof which I would need to force - he would hear me coming."

 _"Don't."_ Zari said shortly. _"We've already got one casualty here, we don't need another."_

"A casualty? Who? Not Sandiego, surely." Devineaux found the prospect distressing, especially given his recent doubts about the woman's motives.

 _"He tried to shoot Sandiego, but got Argent instead,"_ Zari replied grimly. _"Looked bad, but I can't get over there while Stark has me pinned."_

"He shot Julia?" Shock hit Devineaux like a bucket of ice water. He'd been hoping to get a chance to speak to Julia tonight - and also to apologise for how he had dismissed her theories in the past. _"Fils de pute!"_

 _"Devineaux, don't-"_ Whatever else Zari might have said went unheeded; Devineaux was no longer listening. His immediate thought was to go up and kick the access door open regardless, and damn the consequences. But getting shot would hardly help matters. If he wanted to get close to Stark he'd have to come at him from a different angle.

Pushing the fifth floor door open, Devineaux found himself in a large open atrium. There was a balcony overlooking East 47th Street running the length of the room, but the only door was directly below where Stark had been crouched. Carefully edging over to it, Devineaux muttered a soft thanks as he saw that the lock had a thumbturn. He twisted it slowly, praying that he wouldn't set off any alarms. It opened with a click, and nothing happened. Presumably the accommodating staff had deactivated them for ACME so that Stark wouldn't accidentally set them off. Now he just needed to get up onto the roof without being shot.

Glancing upwards, Devineaux took in the metal frame jutting out from the roof above the balcony. If he stood on the balcony railing and jumped, he would hopefully be able to catch hold of one of the beams and pull himself onto the roof that way. But he would only get one chance, and Stark would be forewarned the moment the door below him opened. Unless his mind was elsewhere of course.

"Zari," he hissed between his teeth, one hand on the comm, the other on the door. "I need you to draw the attention of this _salaud_."  
  
_"Are you crazy?"_ Zari snapped back. _"You'll either get me shot or yourself shot, or both!"_

"If you can distract him," Devineaux explained, struggling to keep his voice calm as it shook with barely restrained rage. "Then I can take him by surprise."

There was a couple of seconds of silence on the comm, then Devineaux heard Zari sigh. _"Fine. If I get shot and don't die, I'm going to kick your ass. On three."_

Devineaux counted silently. On two he heard a faint shifting from above. It sounded like Stark was adjusting his aim. And on three several things happened at once - the rifle cracked as Devineaux kicked the door open and launched himself up onto the metal railing of the balcony. He barely had time to register that the smooth metal handrail was slipping beneath his feet before he jumped again, catching hold of the metal frame jutting from the edge of the roof and hauling himself up onto it. He balanced there precariously for an instant as Stark sprang to his feet and turned to face him, but the rifle barrel was too long and too slow for him to get a bead on Devineaux as he lunged forwards.

Tackling Stark around the waist, Devineaux threw them both to the ground, then seized the rifle barrel and pointed it skywards, feeling it pulse as another shot rang out. Stark's eyes were wide and strangely terrified but that didn't stop Devineaux from slamming a fist into his jaw. Dimly, he registered a strange tingling sensation across his knuckles but ignored it as he wrenched the rifle out of Stark's hands and threw it aside. Seizing his gas gun with his other hand, he fired it directly into the man's face. The prospect of beating him unconscious for what he'd done to Julia was appealing, but the gas gun was faster.

As Stark's head slumped back against the roof, Devineaux tapped his comm again. " _C'est fait_ ," he reported, taking out a set of cuffs and snapping them around his captive's wrists. " Stark's down, I-" His words trailed off as Stark's face seemed to ripple like water, then broke apart to reveal a different, much younger man. " _Putain de merde_!"

* * *

"Stark's down?" Zari asked, wanting confirmation before she tried moving again. Sticking one foot out beyond the concealment of the security booth had resulted in her nearly losing the foot.

 _"It's not Stark!"_ Devineaux's voice was stunned, disbelieving.

"So we still have an active shooter?" Inwardly, Zari groaned. Either Devineaux had the wrong man, or there had been more than one after all.

 _"No, he is the shooter, but he isn't Stark! He **was** Stark, but his face changed! How does someone's face change?"_ Devineaux sounded almost accusing - as if this was some mystery that Zari had purposely kept hidden.

"I don't know, but I need to find out what the situation is with Argent," she replied, pushing herself back to her feet, shoes crunching on fragments of safety glass. People were starting to gather at the gates now - another complication that Zari didn't have time to deal with. "Whether it's Stark or not, secure the weapon and don't let him out of your sight. Or custody - don't hand him over to NYPD. Keep him secure."

 _"Of course. Is Julia-"_ He didn't get a chance to finish before Zari cut him off.

"I don't know, I'm going to find out. Try to get in touch with the Chief - if you can't then don't do anything or go anywhere unless you hear from me." Without waiting for an answer, Zari switched her comm over to Agent Collins. "Collins, deal with the people at the gates. You can tell them the shooter's down." Hearing the affirmative response, Zari switched the comm off and headed for the statue of Saint George.

She was expecting the situation to be bad - a rifle powerful enough to punch through both sides of the security booth would inflict serious injuries on a person. The best she could hope for was that Sandiego might have done something to slow Argent's bleeding before she fled, but even then...

What Zari hadn't been expecting, was for Sandiego to still be there. As she came around the side of the statue, she found herself looking directly into the woman's grey eyes. The thief had torn off both sleeves from her hooded top and had one of them rolled up and pressed to the right side of Argent's chest. The bright red of the fabric was now a darker, deeper red; blood covered both of Sandiego's hands and arms like long gloves. Instead of the fury that she'd shown while facing the Chief, now all that Zari could see in her expression was desperation and fear. And for the first time, the agent realised just how young she actually was.

Without wasting time on words, Zari dropped to her knees on Argent's other side. The woman was still breathing with shallow, hitching gasps but her eyes were closed. That was bad - if she sank into unconsciousness now then there was a large chance that she wouldn't wake up again. "Argent!" Zari snapped, with the sharp tone that had always made the woman jump when they'd worked together. This time there was no response. Instead Zari reached down to rub the knuckles of her right hand against Argent's sternum in a vicious, grinding motion and to her relief the woman reacted immediately to the pain stimulus, her eyes opening as she cried out. Sandiego flinched at the sound.

"You need to try and keep her awake," Zari ordered. She knew she didn't have time to sit and weigh their options - they could wait for an ambulance or get Argent in the car and drive to the nearest hospital. Normally the latter would have been the worst possible choice, but Zari knew that from here it was practically a straight shot up First Avenue to New York-Presbyterian and the Weill-Cornell trauma center. They could be there before an ambulance could reach them here, and right now time was the most important factor. Making up her mind, Zari reached into her jacket pocket and clicked the car's key fob to open the doors, then shook the garment off. “Help me move her onto the jacket. We can use it to carry her to the car.”

To Zari's relief, Sandiego only made a token protest before doing as she was told, calmly accepting Zari's instructions as if they were colleagues instead of adversaries. Obviously, the thief was willing to put that aside for Argent's sake. After carrying the injured woman to the car Zari had expected Sandiego to object when ordered to get in the vehicle. The woman had already commented on Agent Collins' presence at the gates - Zari had to admit that if she'd been the thief, she'd have smelled a trap.

Instead, Sandiego climbed into the back of the car without a flicker of hesitation, settling Argent onto the seat with gentle care. Closing the doors - pushing away the thought that she was making a huge mistake and should have chosen to wait for an ambulance - Zari swung herself into the driver's seat and started the car. Turning it slowly in a tight circle, Zari eased the vehicle out onto the road, glancing in the rearview mirror to see that Sandiego was leaning over Argent protectively.

“Remember what I said. Try to keep her talking," Zari ordered, shifting the car's gears and gunning the engine. The acceleration was smooth as butter - within seconds the vehicle was moving at top speed without the slightest jolt to the passengers. She was glad that it was late enough for the roads to be relatively clear by New York standards, it gave her the opportunity to activate the smart screen on the dashboard and access the car's communications system. "New York-Presbyterian emergency department," she ordered, hearing the system chime in acknowledgement and dial.

Zari could hear Sandiego's voice behind her but focused on the call instead as it was answered by a bewildered dispatcher who was probably wondering how it had come through directly instead of going through 911. Without wasting time on an explanation, Zari simply informed them of the situation - she was bringing in a gunshot victim, female, early twenties, through and through bullet wound to the right chest, awake and responsive at the scene, approximate ETA of five minutes. Apparently, her tone in itself was enough to persuade them that this was no prank - instead of questioning her, the dispatcher confirmed that they would have trauma staff waiting at the entrance.

Sandiego was still talking, her voice low and urgent, catching in her throat. Another glance in the mirror revealed that her shoulders were shaking. Right now Sandiego was no world-renowned master thief posing confidently in her signature hat and coat - now she was a young woman desperately concerned for her companion. Zari heard Argent murmur something, feeling a surge of relief knowing that she was still conscious. Then she heard Sandiego's response.

“I love you too.”

Well. That certainly explained several things.

* * *

Tamara Fraser didn't often feel her age, but as she disembarked from the jet in the early light of dawn and stepped stiffly into the waiting car she felt twenty years older. She could have tried to sleep during the flight, but she knew it would have been a pointless exercise. Whenever she closed her own eyes, others opened. The same grey eyes, either weary and defeated or furious and accusing. Then there was the flash of metal in a pocket, a gunshot, and a man dead at her feet because she'd followed her gut instinct and acted without thinking. A man who'd had an infant daughter. Dexter Wolfe might have stolen countless priceless artifacts, but he'd never taken someone's father.

Time didn't make the guilt and regret any less bitter, just easier to push through. And that was exactly what Tamara did now. She'd have to confront them again soon enough when she spoke with Sandiego - which would be surprisingly easy since she'd refused to leave the hospital where Julia was being treated - and for now she needed to focus on what exactly had happened at the UN. First the gunman had been firing from Agent Stark's position, then the gunman had _been_ Agent Stark, but then suddenly he wasn't.

And now Tamara knew that the gunman couldn't have been Stark, since she'd received a call during the flight to inform her that the agents sent to his apartment in Seattle had found his corpse in a vacuum bag under his bed, where it appeared to have been for several weeks at least. Yet she had seen him earlier that very day when giving the agents assigned to New York their orders. And to think she'd expected that it would be Devineaux whose presence there she'd regret.

She'd made another call during the flight which had been troubling as well, just in a different way. Upon checking Julia's personnel file, Tamara had been surprised to see there were no next of kin details. Her Interpol file had been the same. Going further back to university records, Tamara had found the name and address of an aunt in Hong Kong but it had been removed and further investigation had revealed that the woman had died shortly before Julia's graduation.

Tamara should probably have taken that as a sign to let the matter drop, but truth be told it had been a welcome distraction. A simple search of London birth records had given her the names of Julia's parents and a second search had confirmed that they were both still alive. Their telephone number was unlisted, but that wasn't a problem for ACME and a few clicks had provided the details she needed. _If Julia's parents are alive, why aren't they listed as her next of kin?_ The thought made Tamara hesitate briefly - but the girl's parents needed to know that their daughter was critically injured. So she dialled the number. It rang briefly, then was answered while Tamara was still trying to work out what time it would be in England.

 _"Hello?"_ The voice was clipped, female, and faintly accented. _"Who is this?"_ There was an edge of outrage to the words - as if the woman was wondering who had dared to call her unlisted number.

"Mrs. Argent? My name is Tamara Fraser. I'm calling about your daughter, Julia." Tamara had braced herself for a barrage of questions - who are you, where is she, why isn't she calling, is she okay. Instead, she was answered by cold silence. For a moment she thought the call had dropped.

 _"What about her?"_ The woman's abrupt tone was even colder than the silence had been.

"I, uh, there was an incident in New York City," Tamara explained, then remembered the cover story that Zari had given the hospital. It would be best to keep the story straight. "Your daughter was visiting the city with her fiancée. She was caught in the crossfire during a police shooting and I'm afraid she was seriously injured. She's currently in-"

 _"Male or female?"_ The sharp question took Tamara by surprise.

"...excuse me?" _I said daughter didn't I?_ she thought confusedly. _Does she have a son too?_

 _"The **partner**. Male or female?" _The woman spoke as if she already knew the answer and despised it.

"Female," Tamara replied uneasily. "But I don't see why that-" Again, she was interrupted.

 _"Then I do not care to know any more. Goodbye."_ The line went dead with a click. Tamara stared at the telephone handset as if it had transformed into a snake, stunned into silence for only the second time in her career. Somewhat galling given that the first time had only happened a few hours earlier.

The car stopped, snapping Tamara out of her reverie. Stepping out of the vehicle, she found herself standing next to the Japan Society - Devineaux had taken Zari literally when she'd told him not to go anywhere. Which was probably for the best. Heading to the doors she found them open with Agent Collins waiting outside - though she noticed that one was missing most of its glass. She could guess how that had happened.

"Ma'am," Collins inclined his head respectfully. "Devineaux has the suspect in one of the staff break rooms. They woke up an hour ago, but wouldn't answer any of my questions."

"Devineaux didn't question them?" Tamara asked, raising an eyebrow. Collins looked away, shifting his weight uncomfortably.

"Uhm... Devineaux said it would be better if he didn't, because if he saw the, uh, 'sal-oh' open his mouth then he would probably close it with his fist."

"Huh." She wasn't entirely surprised; for all his overbearing bluster she knew that Devineaux had missed Julia after she'd resigned. "Lead on then."

Collins took her across the elegantly minimalist atrium to a staff door, then through it and down a short flight of stairs that opened into a corridor. Devineaux was leaning against the wall beside one of the several doors, his suit torn in multiple places - no doubt from his encounter with the main door.

"Chief," He straightened up as he saw her. "Has there been any word about Julia?"

"She's out of surgery," Tamara replied, seeing his shoulders sag slightly in relief. "I'll be going to the hospital next. So will you. Now," she continued, glancing towards the door. "If I take you in there, can I rely on you to not assault our prisoner?" Devineaux's face twitched in response, but he nodded tersely. "Good. Collins, stay here." The other agent nodded, taking Devineaux's position. Tamara would much rather have had Zari with her, but Devineaux would have to do. Right now he and Zari were the only agents that she felt she could absolutely trust.

Opening the door, Tamara stepped inside with Devineaux at her back. The room was relatively small, with coat hooks running along one wall and a soda machine against another. A circular table sat at the center, but the chairs around it had been pulled away to leave two facing each other.

Sitting in one of them, handcuffed to the frame, was Stark.

Tamara took the other seat, glancing over the man with a gaze that was brief but took in everything. The face was Stark's - an exact copy - but the suit was slightly too large and now she was close enough to see that it had been padded at the shoulders. And compared to the face, the hands were slightly too small and too tanned. _Why didn't you notice that before?_

"I know you're not Stark," she said shortly. "So you might as well drop the act."

Stark's face smirked back at her, then the too-narrow shoulders shrugged and his features broke apart, melting away like thin ice. The man - no, the _boy_ \- beneath had sharp, Mediterranean features and olive skin, his eyes brown instead of Stark's grey-blue. But if he had expected Tamara to show any sign of surprise at his transformation, he would have been disappointed.

"Who are you?" Her question was brusque, impersonal.

"You may call me Carnevale," the boy - late teens Tamara imagined, definitely not more than eighteen or nineteen - said. His voice had a strong Italian accent. "And that is all I have to say to you."

"I think that might change," Tamara replied. Her voice wasn't threatening, merely stating a fact. "I know you're probably thinking that we'll take you to the nearest police station and lock you up, then you'll conveniently disappear. That's why we won't be doing that. Instead, we'll be taking you to somewhere that your friends won't find you. Who are you?"

The boy's dark eyes flickered momentarily, then the arrogance of youth reasserted itself with all its brash confidence. "My name is Carnevale."

"All right, let's try a different question. Why were you trying to kill Carmen Sandiego?" Tamara saw the boy's expression shift, his eyes narrowing. "Were you supposed to kill her? You failed. What happens to you now?"

Carnevale said nothing, but his expression had hardened. It couldn't conceal the faint glitter of apprehension in his eyes.

"You tried to shoot me too," Tamara continued, still in the same detached, neutral tone. "Didn't you know that wouldn't do anything to me? From what we can tell you've been Stark for a while. You also tried to shoot Agent Zari - you certainly haven't been very successful tonight, have you - was someone else lined up to take her place as you did to Stark? Were you going to take her place yourself? You're not tall enough."

Again, the boy said nothing, but his glare told Tamara that her jabs were provoking him, just as she'd intended. He would be more likely to react if he was angry.

"How many of my agents has VILE replaced?" She hadn't been expecting a response to that question any more than her previous ones, but to Tamara's surprise the boy started slightly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, too quickly. Tamara leaned back in her chair, holding his gaze.

"Oh, I think you do," she replied. "You're a VILE operative, aren't you?"

Carnevale's lip had curled into the beginnings of a sneer, but the moment she spoke the name again his eyes went wide. Horrified. "I- no, I don't..." For a moment Tamara thought she was beginning to get somewhere, but then there was a soft, muffled _pop_. A gentle sound, not a sharp one. She was still looking into the boy's eyes as they went vacant, blood streaming from his nose and ears as his spine arched backwards. His chair toppled over with a clatter as he seized violently, the metal legs scraping back and forth across the floor. By the time Tamara got to her feet, while Devineaux was halfway around the table, the boy had went still, blood pooling around his head. Blood, and small clots of grey-white matter.

For a moment Tamara was back in Buenos Aires, twenty years ago, and a man was dead at her feet. Then she was back in New York and this time she'd killed with a question, not a gun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that finale, huh? Well, we did not find out Player's real name, or Carmen's for that matter. And Carulia was not made canon, but it is also not _not_ canon so I can deal. The writers did seem to take pains to ensure that no Carmen-related ship be made canon - the only canon ship in the show is Jeantonio. (valid)
> 
> While I do have plans to work elements of S4 into this fic, the timescales are different and certain aspects will happen differently - for instance now ACME have no reason to bring Gray in (yet), and Julia is not teaching ancient history at a university. Most importantly, there is going to be considerable time between where the fic is now and the events of S4 - at least six months. And I'm only going to be using the elements I actually like and ignoring the ones I don't. Like the implication that Carmen just ditches Zack and Ivy, that can fuck right off. Canon compliance is overrated anyway.


	8. Chapter 8

Going back to the hotel alone had been harder than Carmen expected. It was less than two miles from the hospital but she'd decided to take a cab, partly because she was still wearing scrubs and partly because it felt less exposed. Carmen had been surprised when nobody had stopped her from leaving - ACME might be happy to let her go but surely NYPD would want to take a statement from her given her cover story of being an innocent tourist. It seemed like maybe ACME had pulled some strings there too, since she left through the main entrance without incident.

She spent the ten minute taxi ride acutely aware of the empty space beside her. Thankfully the driver didn't try to make any small talk - either because it was too early, or because they'd taken one look at her and decided it would be a bad idea. Carmen gave them a $20 bill for the $10 fare and got out of the vehicle before the driver could ask if she wanted change, the plastic bag containing her clothes bumping against her legs.

When she stepped into the hotel lobby, Carmen was relieved to see that the night concierge was distracted - chatting with the one who was just coming on duty. She really didn't want to explain why she was coming back alone wearing scrubs. Quickly heading over to the elevators, she thumbed the call button but couldn't help overhearing snatches of the conversation.

"...I know, right at the UN. I heard it was someone taking shots at the police."

"I guess that's better than someone taking shots at random passersby at least."

 _Please don't notice me_ , Carmen thought as she watched the elevator floor number steadily ticking down. _Please don't ask me if I know anything about it_. She knew that if that happened, she wouldn't be able to keep herself together. Just listening to people talk about it so casually made her want to either lash out or break down entirely. But her luck held - the elevator doors opened with a chime and Carmen immediately got in and pressed her floor number. The rear wall of the elevator carriage was mirrored, so Carmen saw the hotel staff turn to look towards her in its reflection, but the doors closed behind her before they could say anything.

Carmen didn't realise that the room key was still in the pocket of her jeans until she was standing in front of the door. Steeling herself, she gingerly reached into the bag and felt for them. The blood staining her clothes had dried, sticking folds of fabric together in stiff bunches that had to be peeled apart like velcro. Eventually extricating the key, Carmen unlocked the door, slipped inside and locked it behind herself all in one smooth motion. Once inside, she let the bag and key drop, and leaned back against the wall with a long, shaky breath. It struck her that it was probably the exact same spot where she'd pinned Julia the night they'd arrived.

_"Oh no," Carmen purred in the smaller woman's ear with a faux-dismay that wasn't even slightly convincing. "There's only one bed."_

_"Imagine that," Julia giggled, letting her backpack drop so that she could wind her arms around Carmen's shoulders. "We'll just have to manage, won't we-" Her voice ended in an abrupt squeak as the thief's lips found her neck and nipped at it gently before following the curve of her throat down to her collarbone._

_Despite how closely their bodies were pressed together, Carmen still managed to unzip Julia's coat without the other woman even noticing until the hand slid beneath her shirt. Another surprised squeak - Carmen wondered if Julia knew how adorable those sounds were - deepened into a soft sigh as she pressed her face into Carmen's hair, hot breath ghosting across her scalp._

_"If you don't take me to bed right now," Julia panted in a low, throaty murmur that broke off into a needy whine as agile fingertips drifted teasingly across her ribs. "Then I am going downstairs to ask for a twin room."_

_"Right now?" Without waiting for a response, Carmen swept Julia up into her arms, carried her the short distance to the bed and threw her onto it before the other woman could do any more than gasp in surprise. "Can I at least take my shoes off?" Carmen asked, grinning_

_Julia smiled back at her from the bed, still bouncing slightly against the mattress from the impact. "Only if you get mine too," she replied, shrugging out of her coat._

The bed had been neatly made while Carmen had been gone, looking exactly as it had the previous night. Had things gone as Carmen had expected - or even if she'd had to run from ACME - by all rights both she and Julia should have been sleeping there now. Or possibly one or both of them would have been awake by this time, reading or talking or doing exactly what they'd done when they first arrived.

Carmen tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but it wouldn't budge. She couldn't bring herself to sit on the bed - afraid she'd fall asleep and doubly afraid of what she might dream. Though the thought of sleeping did make her wonder if maybe she should extend her stay here after all; the hotel was close to the hospital - would she be able to keep an eye on Julia without going inside? Would she be able to stop herself from going inside? With an irritated grunt, Carmen shook her head as if trying to dislodge the idea. The Chief had been right, much as she hated to admit it. VILE would surely know that Julia had been injured, and if they so much as sighted her in the area then they would be quick to make the connection. No matter how much Carmen wanted to be near her right now, staying would only paint a target on Julia's back for VILE.

Since sleeping wasn't an option and she still had nearly five hours until Zack, Ivy and Shadowsan arrived at JFK International, Carmen decided that the best thing she could do now was finally get a shower. Heading into the bathroom, she kicked off her sneakers and undressed before entering the indulgently large shower enclosure. Turning it on at maximum pressure and as high a temperature as she could bear, Carmen closed her eyes and let the steaming water hammer against her head and shoulders. She stood like that for some time, gathering her thoughts. No matter how much she hated it, there was nothing she could do for Julia now. Carmen had to keep her head in the game - grimly reminding herself that Julia was the reason she still _had_ a head.

After drying her hair and changing into clean clothes Carmen felt more like her normal self, even if her exhausted reflection didn't agree. She had to push her concern for Julia to one side for now and focus on VILE, especially if there were going to be further attempts on her life. Newly qualified VILE operatives rarely worked alone; Carnevale could have had associates that were still in the city tracking her. Unless his capture had made them pull back. The thought that there could be more operatives waiting to take a shot at her was unnerving, but Carnevale had known exactly when and where to find her. If he had teammates, they wouldn't have that advantage.

Something about it still didn't sit right though. After all VILE's efforts to capture her or force her into capitulating it didn't make sense for them to suddenly run out of patience and simply try to kill her. Sure, Coach Brunt had already tried once, but Carmen suspected the rest of the Faculty didn't agree with her methods - why else would Brunt have let her live in Botswana? Had exposing Roundabout been the last straw? That still didn't feel right. Carmen had spent more than enough time around the Faculty to know that the Countess and Maelstrom would take a perverse pleasure in watching Roundabout fail regardless of the harm it might cause VILE. Brunt might want her dead; Bellum's opinion would probably change depending on whether Carmen had done anything to directly inconvenience her recently. But Maelstrom and the Countess had plenty of patience - and an equal amount of sadism in Maelstrom's case - and the Faculty only acted on majority votes.

Maybe Roundabout had been the deciding vote for killing her, but if his admission to the Faculty had been dependent on his caper in London being successful then he wouldn't have gotten either the vote or the place. Besides, Carmen was certain that regardless of what she did, Maelstrom would want her taken alive in order to mould her into the perfect operative. For revenge, if nothing else - killing her would be too quick and clean. And he was exceptionally good at persuading his fellow Faculty members to see things from his perspective.

Perhaps Carnevale had decided to kill her on his own initiative. Being the operative who killed Carmen Sandiego would certainly have earned him plenty of prestige. Even if the Faculty didn't approve, it wasn't like they could have condemned him for it. The Chief being the actual target made sense - seizing control of ACME absolutely worked to VILE's advantage. Maybe when Carnevale had realised that the Chief wasn't a viable target, he'd decided that Carmen was the next best thing. It still didn't explain why he'd shot at the woman's hologram anyway, unless that had just been out of sheer frustration. Not something a seasoned operative would have done, but a newly qualified one who'd just lost his chance to prove himself? Maybe.

He'd lost more than that as it turned out. Carmen had wanted to believe the Chief was lying about how Carnevale had died, but her reaction had been too genuine. Besides, on a certain level it made sense - VILE could no longer have their operatives released from custody easily, and new operatives were also the most expendable. Still, the thought that VILE might have planted similar failsafes in others was unsettling. Was it standard practice now for graduates, or only for ones in high-risk operations? Did the operatives know it had been done to them? Was it the new price of failure? That thought was particularly jarring when Carmen considered her old classmates. At least Gray was safe enough, but what about the others?

_"Oh, I am truly excited to be working with you today, Carmen Sandiego." The respect in El Topo's voice was genuine and, more surprisingly, so was the warmth._

_"Not one of VILE's haters, huh?" she replied, her mouth quirking into a grin._

_"El Topo hates no one. We are merely pawns in a bigger game."_

And they could be easily sacrificed like pawns too. Carmen shuddered at the thought of Antonio dying like Carnevale. Or Jean-Paul for that matter - Sheena, Paper Star, any of them. _But would they believe me if I told them?_ Maybe not, but Carmen could at least warn them and hope that it convinced them not to let Bellum give them any 'enhancements' if she hadn't already. Perhaps Shadowsan would know more about what exactly had been done to Carnevale. Carmen doubted it was something that would have been carried out on a whim.

Shadowsan. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Carmen realised that she now had two and a half hours before her crew arrived at JFK. She must have spent longer in the shower than she'd thought, and she still had to get out to the airport... and leave Julia's bag at the hospital for her. They'd both been travelling light - only a backpack each - since they hadn't intended to stay more than two nights in the city.

The lump was back in Carmen's throat, but this time she ignored it. Instead she calmly collected the wash bags from the bathroom and put them in their respective bags. Then Julia's book from the bedside table - a recent translation of Herodotus' 'Histories' that she'd been excited about despite having read an earlier version. She'd been using a map of New York museums as a bookmark, which Carmen was careful not to dislodge as she placed the book in Julia's backpack.

Then there was the question of Carmen's bloodstained clothes. Logically, Carmen knew she should dispose of them. She'd already torn the sleeves off the hoodie and both it and the jeans had been soaked with Julia's blood. Those stains would never wash out, and something about the idea of trying felt... _wrong_. But so did the thought of throwing them in the trash. With a frustrated groan, Carmen decided that this was a problem for her future self to deal with when she was back in San Diego. Stuffing the scrubs she'd worn in the hospital into the bag as well, she tied it tightly and shoved it into her bag.

Checking out of the hotel was mercifully brief - the concierge only asked if she'd had a pleasant stay and didn't comment on her companion's absence. Carmen said that she had - nearly choking on the lie - and left with her backpack on her shoulders and carrying Julia's in one arm. It was broad daylight now, the clouds having cleared away to reveal a frigid blue sky, but Carmen still looked around carefully before stepping out into the street. She almost expected to hear a gunshot the moment she was clear of the hotel doors, but instead there was only the noise of traffic and the hustle of the city. Within moments, Carmen was lost in the crowd and only then did she start to feel safe.

* * *

Carmen almost didn't make it to the airport before the flight from San Diego landed. She'd needed something to replace her hoodie but it hadn't taken her long to pick out an overpriced and nondescript grey jacket from one of Midtown Manhattan's clothing stores. What _had_ taken up most of the time was circling the New York-Presbyterian hospital while she tried to decide whether or not to go in - and if she should try to see Julia before she left. Eventually, she had decided yes to the former - since she couldn't really dump Julia's bag outside and hope for the best - but no to the latter. Just going in was risk enough - there was no sense in compounding it by going to Julia's room as well, regardless of how much she wanted to.

Luckily the staff at the front desk had changed since Carmen was last there - none of them appeared to recognise her. She'd been able to hand the backpack over without much fuss - explaining that it belonged to the injured tourist who'd been brought in the night before and that she'd brought it over from her hotel. Carmen had quickly vanished as the receptionist had been looking up Julia's details, hoping that they'd just assume that she'd been sent by the hotel. The hospital staff were probably wondering what had happened to Julia's 'fiancée', but Zari would just have to explain that.

She'd texted Player while in the cab to the airport, explaining that she'd given her comm to Devineaux to pass on to Julia. Rather than an immediate reply, it was almost fifteen minutes before she got a response - ' ** _talk later mom is still freaking out is julia ok?'_** Carmen had hesitated before answering - Julia certainly wasn't okay but if she'd gotten worse then she was sure that ACME would have contacted her. Or would they? Carmen had a contact number for them, but they didn't have hers. She decided to fix that right away, sending a text to the number the Chief had given her.

**_'This is Carmen. How is Julia?'_ **

After a moment, the message that someone was typing popped up below hers. It stayed there long enough for Carmen to start worrying before the reply came through.

**_'Still asleep. Going back into surgery at 7 this evening. Will contact you if anything changes. -D'_ **

Guessing that 'D' was Devineaux, Carmen responded with a brief thanks, then passed the message on to Player. Hopefully his mom freaking out didn't mean he'd be banned from the internet or that might cause problems later on. Carmen wasn't sure if it was even possible for Player's parents to successfully ban him from the internet given how many backup devices he had stashed about his room but she didn't want to have to find out.

Reaching the Delta terminal at JFK, Carmen had looked at the arrivals screen to see that the flight from San Diego was both on time and due to land in ten minutes. The airport was busy, the sheer amount of people comforting, but Carmen still made sure to find a seat in a corner with a solid wall at her back. One that gave her a good view of the area around her. Carmen was pretty sure that she hadn't been this edgy since she'd walked out of VILE Academy disguised as Cookie Booker - right under the Cleaners' noses. It wasn't a good feeling. _Is this my life now?_ Hell, maybe she'd been overthinking things the whole time - maybe the attempt on her life had been a fear tactic. Perhaps Carnevale's orders had been to shoot whoever was closest to her so that she'd think she was the target.

It wasn't going to work. Carmen wouldn't let it. She might be on edge, but she wasn't afraid. She was _angry_. Maybe VILE had been hoping to scare her but by hurting someone she cared about - someone she _loved_ \- all they'd done was make her even more determined to stop them. And also determined to tell Julia exactly how she felt about her no matter how awkward the words felt. Awkwardness was nothing compared to the cold despair Carmen had felt at the prospect of losing her, or how wrong it felt to leave her lying in a hospital bed.

Or how awful it felt to know that the only time she'd been able to tell Julia that she loved her was when the other woman was lying semiconscious in the back of a car, horribly injured and barely aware of her surroundings. Carmen wasn't sure if Julia would even remember that when she woke up. It was the first thing she was going to tell her as soon as she had the opportunity.

Hearing the flight number announced, Carmen got to her feet and headed towards the domestic arrivals gate. As she reached it, a breathless red-haired figure burst through the doors - clearly having just shoved their way through the rest of the passengers - and spotted her immediately.

Ivy's mouth opened, but she seemed to catch herself before yelling Carmen's name. Instead she vaulted over the barriers - completely ignoring the looks of alarm from airport security - and threw her arms around the taller woman, hugging her fiercely. "I'msogladyou'reokay!" The words were mumbled into the side of Carmen's neck, and as the thief returned the embrace she saw the other passengers start to file through the doors - several of them shooting glares at Ivy as they passed. Zack and Shadowsan soon followed - Zack's face lighting up the moment he saw her and even Shadowsan's normally stoic expression softening into a smile. Thankfully neither of them decided to jump the barriers like Ivy - Carmen was pretty sure that security would have tasered anyone else who tried.

Moments later, Zack slammed into her from the side, wrapping his arms around both her and Ivy as he joined the hug - which was definitely starting to feel a lot like one of Coach Brunt's. "It's wicked good to see ya, boss." Zack muttered thickly, sounding close to tears.

"Not here." Shadowsan's voice was a quiet murmur as his hand touched Carmen's shoulder gently. "Too public. We should be trying to keep a low profile," he added, with a sharp glare at Ivy.

Carmen nodded silently in response, swallowing hard as she looked at each of them in turn. She wanted to tell them how glad she was to see them, how grateful she was that they'd come here for her despite the danger. But all she could think of was how terribly guilty she felt to be back among friends and walking away almost entirely unscathed because someone else had put themselves in harm's way for her. Instead of words, all that came out of her mouth was a harsh sob. Then another. And then she was on her knees, weeping helplessly just as she had back in Julia's apartment in Poitiers. In Julia's arms.

She couldn't bring herself to look up at her friends; the humiliation was bad enough without seeing the disappointment on their faces. Carmen could imagine Zack and Ivy's looks of shocked dismay, Shadowsan's polite disdain. How could they trust her to lead them now that they'd seen her go to pieces like this?

And then someone was kneeling in front of her, arms gently circling her shoulders to draw her in. "It's okay Carm," Ivy's voice said softly. "It's gonna be okay." Her hand stroked through Carmen's hair comfortingly. As she opened her eyes, Carmen didn't see any of the shock she'd expected in Ivy's expression, only compassion. Zack and Shadowsan were still standing but had moved to either side and turned their backs, boxing her and Ivy in against the barriers. For a moment Carmen thought that they couldn't even look at her, but then she realised that wasn't what they were doing. They were trying to stop people seeing her, giving her as much privacy as she could get in the middle of a busy airport.

Unfortunately for Carmen, that realisation only made her sob harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Herodotus (born circa 484 BC) was an Ancient Greek writer known for his book 'The Histories' which is considered the first work of history in Western literature. He is often referred to as 'The Father of History'. However, it should be noted that a considerable amount of material in 'The Histories' is based on legends and fanciful tales, Herodotus himself states on several occasions that he does not believe the stories he is relating, they are merely what he's been told. Later authors like Thucydides, who wrote 'History of the Peloponnesian War' around 50 years after 'The Histories', accuse him of making up stories for entertainment rather than sticking to historical fact. Which is legitimate criticism but then again that's probably why Herodotus' book is a much better read than 'History of the Peloponnesian War' anyway.


	9. Chapter 9

Without Player, finding suitable accommodation that was a prudent distance from any transport links that VILE might be watching took some time. Eventually, the four of them booked three adjoining rooms in a nondescript hotel in central Queens - they only planned to use one, but Shadowsan had insisted on making sure that the rooms to either side would remain empty. The middle room had two queen beds and a sofa which would be sufficient for their needs - Carmen had been told in no uncertain terms that she was to take one of the beds, while the others would take turns keeping watch overnight. She was too exhausted to make more than a token objection before agreeing with extremely bad grace.

Carmen had slumped onto the sofa and curled up against one of its arms almost as soon as she'd entered the room. Ivy and Shadowsan were discussing how they should get back to San Diego while avoiding VILE's notice, but their voices faded into a background hum as Carmen's mind drifted. She had her phone in one hand so she would notice immediately if it buzzed and kept glancing at it to check the time. There were only a couple of hours now until Julia was taken back into surgery - how long did rib stabilization take? Were there risks involved? Carmen had started to search the internet for answers, but her pounding headache meant that typing on the touchscreen was growing increasingly difficult...

"Hey, Carm?" The sound of Ivy's voice and the hand on her shoulder dragged Carmen back to sludgy semi-consciousness. She hoped they weren't going to ask her what she thought about travel arrangements because then she'd have to admit that she hadn't been listening. Then she fully awakened with a start as she realised that the room lights had been switched on and it was dark outside - and someone had covered her with a blanket. She could also smell Chinese takeout.

"How long have I been out?" Carmen asked, her voice rasping through her dry throat. Her phone was still in her hand but there were no new messages - and it was now twenty past eight. Julia would have been in surgery for over an hour. "You shouldn't have let me sleep!"

"You needed it," Ivy replied, her tone suggesting that she wasn't going to brook any opposition. "Here." She handed Carmen a bottle of water, which the thief drank from gratefully. "Now you need to eat something. Then you're actually going to bed."

"You better do what she says," Zack added from where he was kneeling on the other side of the coffee table, unfolding takeout cartons into makeshift plates. Shadowsan was standing by the window, unobtrusively looking out through the half-closed blinds. "She's using the mom voice, so she means business."

"But I need to tell you what happened now that we've got some privacy." Carmen's protest was half-hearted, knowing that she would only end up in tears yet again if she had to go over the events of the previous night. But her team still needed to know - and sleeping meant dreams. Dreams where she might hear Julia's screams again. "And what happened to the person who tried to kill me."

"They're dead?" Shadowsan cut in before Zack or Ivy could reply, his voice urgent. Carmen nodded in response, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Are you _sure_?"

"Yes," Carmen replied flatly. "Apparently VILE are now killing operatives remotely if they become a liability." She saw Shadowsan's jaw tighten at that, what might have been a flicker of shock passing across his expression. But he didn't look surprised. "You know what they did, don't you?"

"I believe so, yes." Closing the blinds, Shadowsan moved over to the coffee table and sat cross-legged next to Zack, quickly retrieving the last portion of plain rice before any of the unnaturally orange sweet and sour chicken could be added to it. "But Ivy is right. We can discuss this after you have slept."

Carmen glared at him rebelliously, which provoked exactly the same reaction as all of her previous rebellious glares over the years. Utter indifference. She took the flattened carton and plastic fork that Zack handed her without complaint, but poked listlessly at the food instead of eating. Carmen could feel Ivy's concerned gaze on her though, so took a mouthful to keep her happy - then realised she was ravenous.

It was the first time she'd ever finished a meal before Zack.

Leaning back into the sofa, Carmen had to fight down the urge to just close her eyes and pass out there and then. Eating seemed to have made her even more tired than she'd been before, which she would have thought impossible. She hadn't heard her phone buzz, but Carmen checked it anyway - still no messages. "I'm not sleeping until I know Jules is okay," she said before Ivy could insist that she go to bed. "She was supposed to be going back into surgery at seven, Devineaux said he'd let me know if anything happened."

" _Back_ into surgery?" Zack asked, swallowing a mouthful of chicken and rice. "Jeez, it must have been bad-" He went quiet as he noticed the murderous look his sister had turned on him, fixing his gaze on his food and pretending to be entirely absorbed in eating.

"Just on her ribs," Carmen's explanation was more for her own comfort than anything else. "Some of them were broken pretty badly and the surgeon said that stabilizing them with surgery would be better for her recovery. He didn't seem to think it was dangerous," she added, hoping that the surgeon had been right. Staring down at her phone, now clenched in both hands, Carmen took a deep breath before continuing. "Look, I... I should have told you - all of you - about this before but I just didn't... I wasn't sure if... I didn't know how to put it into words." She felt her face flush as she turned the phone over and over in her hands as if it were a fidget toy. "I've been seeing Julia for a while. Well, obviously I've _seen_ her but I mean... besides work. Not _exactly_ like dating but it's not _not_ like that and... I love her," Carmen finished with a sigh. "I should probably have led with that." Bracing herself, she raised her head to see her team's reactions.

All of them were looking at her. None of them seemed surprised. If anything, the look that passed between Ivy and Zack said 'I told you so' more than anything else. Only the fact that Carmen trusted Player implicitly stopped her from assuming that he'd broken his promise to keep the secret.

"Were we... not supposed to know that?" Zack asked hesitantly after an awkward pause. "Because, uh, it's been kind of... uhhhhh..."

"Super obvious," Ivy finished for her brother. "I mean, after she left ACME you suddenly kept finding all these reasons to go to France without us. Ya ever wonder why we never asked to go with?"

"I..." At this point, Carmen was pretty sure that she'd turned as red as her trademark outfit. Glancing at Shadowsan, she saw a faint gleam of amusement in his eyes despite his deliberately impartial expression. "Then why the hell did you ask me if Julia was seeing anyone?" Carmen snapped at Zack, trying to cover her embarrassment.

"Because I wanted to see if you'd admit that _you_ were seeing her!" he protested, then flinched as Ivy kicked him under the table.

"What did I tell you about interfering?" Ivy growled through gritted teeth. "You _promised_ you wouldn't do anything..."

"Enough," Shadowsan interrupted, his voice calm but unyielding. Ivy fell silent, but the glower she shot towards her brother implied that they would circle back to this later when Shadowsan wasn't around. "Carmen," he continued, turning to look at her. "You may not have informed us of your relationship with Julia, but neither did you conceal it. We had assumed that you simply did not wish to speak about it."

"Did you think we'd be mad about it because Julia's a girl?" Ivy's question was concerned rather than offended. "I mean, I don't know what you were taught growing up," she went on, with an uneasy look towards Shadowsan. "But there's nothing wrong with that."

"I know that," Carmen muttered, wondering if it was possible to blush so hard that she'd pass out from lack of blood to the brain. "And for what it's worth, VILE isn't homophobic. I learned that early on."

_"Well, well, well..." Peeking out from her hiding spot among the stacks of spare tires, Black Sheep watched curiously as Coach Brunt walked into the vehicle bay and approached the Mechanic with a threatening swagger. "If it ain't the little filly that tried to bust my head open with a wrench." Thinking she was going to see a fight, Black Sheep moved to get a better view._

_Straightening up, the blonde woman slammed the helicopter's engine cowling closed and regarded the much taller woman with a cool, challenging stare. "Ain't like it worked, is it? And bloody hell luv, I'm 'ardly anyone's 'little filly'," she sniffed, one hand on her hip and the other tapping a large wrench against her thigh._

_"Oh?" Closing the distance between them, Coach Brunt folded her arms and looked down at the other woman with an expression that seemed to suggest the scene was about to erupt into violence. "Compared to me you are."_

_"Hah!" The Mechanic's snort of laughter threw Black Sheep for a loop - that was not the usual reaction of someone about to be on the receiving end of a beatdown from Coach Brunt. "Giant Haystacks 'imself would be a little filly next to you!" She was grinning now - a wide, wicked grin that only confirmed that she wasn't afraid in the slightest._

_"I don't know who that is, an' I don't care." Quick as a striking snake, Coach Brunt's arms encircled the Mechanic's waist and pulled her close, the wrench dropping to the hangar floor with a clang. Then, to Black Sheep's everlasting disappointment, she kissed the smaller woman, who seemed to be more than happy with this situation._

_Grimacing at the display of affection and immediately losing interest, Black Sheep dropped back down into her hiding place. Then she wondered if she'd be able to steal the Mechanic's wrench without either woman noticing her._

Despite everything that had happened since Carmen still felt a flicker of amusement at the memory. "I didn't think you'd be mad about it," she explained. "I did think that Shadowsan might be disappointed," she added, looking at him apologetically. His expression was unreadable. "Not because Julia's a girl," Carmen added quickly. "I thought you might think she was a distraction."

"Some distractions are worth pursuing," Shadowsan said quietly. "I could not disapprove of something that made you happy. That is something you deserve, not something you should push aside in favour of other goals."

Carmen's throat was too tight for her to reply right away, looking back down at the phone in her hands instead. "Jules does make me happy," she said eventually, her voice quivering but not cracking. "And I've never told her that."

"I'm pretty sure she knows how you feel, Carm," Ivy said gently, putting a hand on Carmen's shoulder. "I mean, Zack figured it out and Julia's way smarter than he is."

For a moment it looked like Zack was going to object, then he shrugged instead. "Eh, you got a point there, sis. Jules _is_ wicked smart. Carm sure knows how to pick 'em."

Looking at each of her friends in turn, the surge of heartfelt gratitude Carmen felt towards them at that moment made tears well in her eyes just as easily as guilt and anguish had done earlier - only this time the feelings were warm, not bitter. "Thanks guys." Her voice was thick with emotion. "For everything. I'm really glad you're here."

"Where else would we be?" Ivy squeezed Carmen's shoulder in reassurance. "We've always got your back, Carm." Both Zack and Shadowsan nodded in agreement and Carmen couldn't help a smile in response, comforted by their support. "I know you don't wanna sleep until you hear back about Julia," Ivy continued as Zack cleared the coffee table. "But will ya lie down at least? You look about ready to collapse."

Carmen shook her head, settling back into the couch instead. "I'll be fine, really. Has anyone heard from Player? I don't want to call him in case he's with his mom. That would just make things worse."

"He sent me a message earlier," Shadowsan replied. Given the way both Zack and Ivy awkwardly averted their eyes Carmen guessed that they already knew what it was, and she wasn't going to like it. "He has managed to smooth things over with his mother, but he believes she will be watching him more closely for the next few days so he may not be able to communicate with us freely."

"Well, at least he wasn't banned from the internet or anything," Carmen commented, glad that she hadn't gotten Player in too much trouble. Then she noticed Zack and Ivy exchanging another meaningful look and guessed there had been more to the message than that. "What aren't you telling me?"

Shooting a reproachful and faintly embarrassed glare at the siblings, Shadowsan sighed. "Apparently he told his mother that he was upset because he had broken up with his 'internet girlfriend'. I did not think that was a detail you needed to know."

As Zack made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snicker, Carmen felt her face flush yet again. "Oh. Well. If it worked then I guess that's the important part." But her discomfort was immediately forgotten as Carmen felt her phone vibrate, and saw that she'd received a text from the ACME number.

**_'This is Zari. Julia out of surgery - doctors seem happy with condition. Keeping her sedated overnight but should wake up tomorrow. We will let you know when she does.'_ **

Breathing out heavily, Carmen slumped back against the couch cushions, the phone pressed to her chest as if she was hugging it. "Jules is okay," she said before anyone could ask, closing her eyes. "Sleep is actually starting to sound really good about now..."

* * *

Despite her conviction that if she managed to sleep at all it would be riddled with nightmares, Carmen had been out like a light almost the moment her head hit the pillow. And if she had dreamed, she didn't remember any of the details when she woke up early the next morning. It wasn't just her head that felt clearer, the entire world seemed to have come into sharper focus around her. As Carmen stretched for what seemed like hours she heard several of her joints click back into place. It felt wonderful.

Sitting up in bed, Carmen checked her phone for any new messages - there were none - then looked around the hotel room. Zack was sprawled on his back in the other bed, snoring quietly, and Ivy was curled under a blanket on the sofa with only the tips of her hair visible. Shadowsan stood by the window exactly as he had done the previous night, keeping a careful watch through a small gap in the blinds. He glanced towards her, nodding in acknowledgement, then returned to his surveillance.

Looking back at Zack and Ivy, Carmen felt her stomach twist as she remembered her concern for their safety. She got out of bed, the oversized t-shirt she was wearing falling to her knees, and made a sharp gesture to get Shadowsan's attention. As he looked back at her, Carmen jerked her head to one side meaningfully. _We need to talk_. He nodded in response, and the two of them silently slipped out of the room and into the next one. The room's layout was identical to the one they'd come from and Carmen sat at the end of one of the beds, Shadowsan joining her a moment later.

"You want to know if I think we should leave Zack and Ivy here and go," he said without preamble, speaking in a low murmur. "I do not."

Carmen started in surprise - she hadn't thought that her old teacher would guess her intentions so quickly or that he'd disagree. "Yes," she replied, in the same soft tone that wouldn't carry through the walls. "VILE isn't playing any more. They mean business. I don't want to see anyone else get hurt by them because of me."

Shadowsan grunted disparagingly, shaking his head. "VILE _always_ means business, and you already know they don't 'play'. That is why you left to follow your own path, is it not?"

"It's not the same," Carmen argued. "Yes, they kill people who get in their way but they've never tried to take me out with a sniper before. This time it was Julia who got hurt instead of me - what if it's Zack or Ivy next time? How am I supposed to live with that?"

"Carmen." Shadowsan's voice was firm. "Zack and Ivy are here by their own choice. Because they are your friends. They care deeply for you, and knowing that VILE has tried to kill you will only make them more determined to put an end to them. If you leave, they will continue to fight VILE by themselves. As I said, there is safety in numbers." He sighed, looking away momentarily. "You did not see them when we thought you were dead. If they had known where to find the Faculty then I do not doubt that they would have resorted to a direct assault. Even if it would have meant their deaths."

"Oh." Carmen wasn't sure what else to say in response. Part of her was chilled by the thought of the siblings making a suicidal attack on VILE, but there was still something oddly touching about the idea that they would have done it for her. "So... where were you when I called yesterday? It sounded like a train station or airport - were you trying to beat them to VILE then?"

"No." He shifted awkwardly, clearly finding the subject uncomfortable. "I _was_ at the airport, but I was not intending to find VILE - we still do not know the Faculty's new location. I was waiting for Player to confirm if you were alive or dead. Depending on the answer I intended to travel to New York... or Seattle."

"Seattle?" Carmen repeated, raising one eyebrow questioningly.

"At that point I did not believe that VILE were behind the attempt on your life," Shadowsan admitted, still not looking at her. "I did not think they would know of your meeting with ACME. But knowing what I do about the woman in charge of ACME, I believed that she was the one who had tried to kill you. Had you died, I would have gone to her location in Seattle and taught her a lesson she would remember for the rest of her life. Which would not have lasted for much longer than my visit."

Carmen wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. While she now knew that ACME wasn't responsible, she also remembered the fury she'd felt when she'd suspected that they were. "There was a moment where I wanted to kill her too," she confessed, remembering the cold fury she'd felt when the Chief's hologram had appeared beside her while she'd been trying to staunch Julia's bleeding. "But now I believe that she didn't have any part in it. Do you?"

Shadowsan nodded, his face grim. "Yes. Had she said that a VILE operative had infiltrated her organisation I might still have had suspicions, but when you mentioned they were killed remotely... did she tell you that? Or give you any other details?"

"She said it looked like he died from a massive brain aneurysm," Carmen told him. "You know what it really was, right?"

"Yes," he replied flatly. "I am... surprised that it was used, especially now that VILE can no longer train new operatives. Bellum developed it as a way of dealing with operatives that could not be retrieved through conventional means. The rest of the Faculty voted against its use; Coach Brunt and I both argued that it was going too far - one of the few times we ever agreed on something. Maelstrom and the Countess believed it to be wasteful."  
  
"Do you think they're going to do that to all of their operatives?" Carmen's voice shook slightly as she asked, thinking of her former classmates. To her relief, Shadowsan shook his head.

"I do not think so, though I cannot be sure. Although Roundabout is no longer in a position to arrange the release of captured operatives, VILE still has the Cleaners." He paused for a moment, considering. "I suspect that it was done to the operative who infiltrated ACME - and any others that may still be there - because they were in a position where the Cleaners would not be able to retrieve them. The last thing they would want is for an operative to fall directly into ACME's hands. Better to kill them, no matter how wasteful."

"I hope you're right," Carmen said quietly. "Nobody should have to die like that. And speaking of dying," she continued, forcing a lighter tone into her words. "Why do you think VILE's suddenly decided they want me dead? I mean, there's a lot of reasons but until now they've been pretty set on getting me back, not taking me out. Do you think the operative just decided that he wanted to be the one who took me down?"

Shadowsan was silent for several moments, thinking it over. "It does seem odd to me that the Faculty would suddenly decide to kill you," he began, frowning pensively. "Certainly Coach Brunt tried once, but not when given a second opportunity. Maelstrom and the Countess believe that you're of more value to them alive. You keep defeating their operatives and destroying their plans, yes, but they would look at that and consider how valuable you could be to them if you could be turned to VILE's purposes. The operative inside ACME deciding to kill you for their own prestige makes more sense, but still..." Shadowsan's eyes narrowed. "...I would consider that more likely if they thought they would be protected by someone higher up."  
  
"Coach Brunt?" Carmen suggested. Again, Shadowsan shook his head.  
  
"Brunt would not act against the wishes of the Faculty. She is loyal, if nothing else. But someone I do suspect..." His expression darkened into a scowl. "...is Roundabout."

"You think he'd still get your old seat after what happened in London?" Carmen asked, snorting in disbelief. "He got arrested and everything!"

"He did." Carmen could have sworn that she saw a faint, uncharacteristic smirk flicker across Shadowsan's face as he spoke. "And yes, that most likely ruined his chances of advancement. But he is still a senior operative. And he is spiteful and vindictive - you cost him his Faculty seat and his position in the British intelligence service, making him far less valuable to VILE. But worse still, you made him look foolish, and that he cannot abide. The whole concept of infiltrating and subverting ACME stinks of his involvement to begin with. Roundabout knows how intelligence and surveillance services work, he could even have gathered information on ACME using his previous position. If the operative was under his direct command then he could have given them orders to kill you before control of the operation could be passed to someone else."

Carmen considered that for a minute; while she was familiar with the Faculty, she had never had any dealings with Roundabout and had known him only by reputation. Shadowsan would know him much better - as a senior operative Roundabout would have been reporting directly to the Faculty while Shadowsan had still been part of it. "I guess that does add up," she admitted. "Makes me feel a bit better to think that he's not likely to be in a position to try again." Sighing, Carmen wrapped her arms around herself. "Doesn't change anything though. Julia's still badly hurt because of me." She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment before spitting her next words out. "Is it terrible if I just... never see her or speak to her again? Okay, I _know_ that's terrible," Carmen added quickly. "But that way she'll be safe. It's not the same as Zack and Ivy, is it?" She didn't realise she was shaking until she felt Shadowsan's hand on her shoulder.

"It may not be exactly the same, no," he said, his tone calm and reassuring. "And I know that you only want to protect her. But Julia saved your life," Shadowsan continued, his expression gentle and understanding. "Cutting her out of it would be a poor way to repay her."

"But she nearly died." Carmen's words were barely more than a whisper. "She _did_ die, her heart stopped beating, but the doctors managed to bring her back. They had to split her chest open to do it. I can't let anything like that happen again. If it did then I..." Her voice cracked and she had to swallow hard before continuing. "I think I'd lose my mind."

The hand on her shoulder vanished. Carmen was vaguely aware of Shadowsan's hesitation, as if he wasn't quite sure what to do. That was a concept that she would have found more disconcerting if she hadn't been so worried about Julia. Then his arm settled around her - awkwardly, as if Shadowsan expected her to shake it off. Instead, she let herself lean against him. It was comforting.

"I know this must be hard for you," Shadowsan said quietly. "Seeing someone you love be hurt is never easy, especially when you feel it is your fault. But it is _not_ your fault," he added. "It is VILE's fault. Do you think Julia would find it any easier if she were in your position now? Had she not acted as she did, you would likely be dead. If you feel that it is too dangerous for her to be close to you then by all means you should tell her. But if she wishes to take that risk, that is her decision to make. Not yours."

When it finally came, Carmen's reply was soft and anxious. "You don't think it's selfish of me to let her be in a relationship with me?"

"Absolutely not." Shadowsan's voice was unequivocal. "I believe you should keep friends, those you love, close to you. There is nothing selfish about that."

For several moments they sat in silence. Carmen could still feel the guilt and worry gnawing at her belly, but their teeth had been blunted. She had to let Julia make her own choices, just like she'd done herself. Taking that away from her wasn't fair, even if it meant Julia would be safe. Continuing to fight VILE wasn't safe after all, but Carmen had no intention of stopping now. Or ever.

* * *

Despite the howl of the wind outside - barely muted by the castle walls - the staccato rhythmic clicking of the Countess' pristine nails against the Faculty table was clearly audible.

"Do remind me," she began, a thin veneer of courtesy barely concealing the edge to her tone. "But wasn't the idea behind this operation to take control of ACME? It seems to me that our operative should have remained incognito once they realised the Fraser woman was not a viable target at this meeting. Instead, they decide to blow their cover and try to kill Sandiego."

"At least we know the failsafe worked," Bellum commented beside her, still reviewing the footage of the previous night's events. "And that my holograms are far more convincing as actual humans than some ridiculous movie effect."

"Yes Saira, very impressive. But that doesn't answer my question," the Countess continued, looking sharply past Maelstrom to where Coach Brunt sat. "Who gave the order to kill Sandiego?"

"Wasn't me," the large woman muttered without looking up. Brunt was also replaying the recording on her own screen, eyes narrowed in thought. "Still think it's a damn fool idea to let her keep runnin' around, but I got outvoted, didn't I?"

"Indeed," Maelstrom cut in smoothly before the Countess could respond, obviously intending to defuse any potential arguments. "The operation was under Roundabout's control. Leaving it in his hands after London may have been a misjudgement on our part."

"As was offering him the vacant Faculty seat." Leaning back in her own chair, the Countess tapped one finger against her jaw thoughtfully. "Between Dexter and Shadowsan, I'm starting to think the damn thing's cursed." Beside her, Bellum made a derisive sound at the superstitious idea but the Countess ignored her.

"While I am inclined to agree, we do need a fifth," Maelstrom pointed out. "For a tiebreaker on votes, if nothing else. Then maybe we could finally reach an agreement on how to make this place more habitable."

The Countess sniffed in disdain. "By moving elsewhere, obviously. I trust you will be dealing with our good friend Nigel?"

"I will be meeting with him after this, yes." The emphasis in Maelstrom's words left very little doubt about what that meeting would entail. "We've lost our operative in ACME and put them on guard. Carnevale had the makings of a good covert operative, it's rather a shame that went to waste."

On Maelstrom's other side, Coach Brunt made a dismissive sound. "Well, he was never gonna make a good sniper. Couldn't even hit Li'l Lambkins when she was flat on the dirt." Scrolling through the recording, she paused it at a specific point. "This is interestin' though - look at zero-oh-fourteen."

There was a brief pause as Maelstrom and the Countess followed suit; Bellum had already lost interest and had switched to a video of a cat encountering its reflection for the first time. The indicated timestamp was just after Carmen had gotten back to her feet and started moving towards the statue of Saint George with Julia over her shoulder. She'd turned to look at the other woman, who'd just screamed in agony. All of Carmen's usual composure and confidence was gone, her face twisted into a mask of shock and horror as she realised that her companion was injured.

"What of it?" the Countess asked, sounding bored. "Black Sheep always was squeamish about bloodshed."

"No, it's more than that, Cleo." Brunt tapped the image of Julia on her screen. "I would bet you a dozen cases of those fish eggs you like so much that that girl's important to Lambkins. Real important. That ain't just an 'oh no, someone got hurt' face. That's a 'someone I love got hurt' face."

Maelstrom hummed thoughtfully, letting the rest of the footage play and watching Carmen hesitate before pulling Julia behind the statue. "I rather think you may be on to something there, my dear Coach," he mused. "I was under the impression that the woman was another ACME agent since she's been sighted in their company on multiple occasions, but here she appears to be with Sandiego instead. And if she was ACME, why would she save her?"

"An' if she's still alive, it ain't gonna be hard to bring her in," Brunt pointed out, her eyes gleaming. "Should make less noise than those two Beantown kids as well."

"That's all very well," the Countess sighed. "Except for ACME now being on high alert and knowing that we've been active in New York. This girl could just be another one of her little friends, and taking those prisoner hardly helped us before. Or she could be ACME, and saved Sandiego out of some misplaced moral duty. And if she is ACME, I would expect that they will be guarding her - so if we send the Cleaners to retrieve her then we will be putting them at significant risk. Need I remind you both that Vlad and Boris are far less expendable than a recent graduate?"

"Cleo, I am tellin' you that this-" Before Coach Brunt could launch into a dispute, Maelstrom raised a hand to forestall her.

"You have both raised excellent points," he began, shooting a reproachful glare at Bellum for leaving him to play mediator. She ignored him. "I suggest the following - we know that our little lost lamb is excessively sentimental when it comes to those she cares about. If this girl is still alive then she will be severely injured and we should be able to find out what hospital she is in easily enough. Then we merely need to keep watch - if the girl means something to Sandiego then our sheep won't stray. She would never leave someone she cares about alone and hurt."

"Guess that makes sense," Brunt grumbled. "But I'm tellin' you now, Black Sheep ain't gonna be far away from her. I'd bet she's in the same room."

"In which case it would certainly be worth dispatching the Cleaners," Maelstrom said as he stood. "Now, if you will all excuse me, it's time that I had _words_ with our friend Roundabout." He glanced at Bellum, who was still absorbed in watching small kittens attack mirrors. "Saira. I trust you are properly prepared for... _decommissioning_?"

"Yes, of course," she replied absently, with a dismissive wave of one hand. "Just let me get set up."

"Please do." With that, Maelstrom turned on his heel and headed out of the audience chamber, disappearing into the flickering shadows of a torchlit corridor.

Unlike the Countess, Maelstrom had found that he rather liked their new abode. The castle was a fraction of the size of their former facility on the Isle of VILE, true, but its layout was far more complex. After familiarising himself with the twisting stairwells, narrow walkways, and pitch-black cellars Maelstrom had found it to be both easy and satisfying to emerge in unexpected places.

Thankfully the Countess had been absent when he'd dropped out of a hidden trapdoor to find himself in her bedroom. While they did get along rather well, Cleo had a habit of over-reacting when she felt offended and god only knew what kind of weapons Bellum might have left lying around there.

Maelstrom's own room was located in one of the towers, above his study. The latter was where he headed now, arriving in the large, circular chamber to find himself looking directly at Roundabout's back. The Englishman was examining the room's centrepiece - an enormous, circular fishtank stretching from floor to ceiling and underlit with an eerie pale green glow. Maelstrom was pleased to see that the tank finally had occupants - dozens of melon-sized jellyfish moving in slow, hypnotic spirals through the water, each trailing a train of slender tentacles in their wake.

" _Chironex fleckeri_." To Maelstrom's deep satisfaction, Roundabout started sharply at his silent approach. "More commonly known as the 'sea wasp'. Perhaps the most lethal jellyfish in the world; just one of them can carry enough venom to kill as many as sixty people." As he reached Roundabout's side, Maelstrom favoured him with a cold smile. "When swimmers are stung by them, they often die before they can even reach the shore."

"Fascinating. Getting them here can't have been easy." Roundabout's voice was artificially casual and confident, and Maelstrom easily picked out the uneasiness he was trying to conceal.

"Indeed it was not," Maelstrom began, stalking around the tank until he stood on the opposing side. "Costly, complicated, and time-consuming. But the results are worth it, don't you agree?" He gazed at the other man through the tank, his features thrown into sharp relief by its illumination. "Much like the ACME operation, except the outcome here is far more satisfactory."  
  
Roundabout laughed nervously, managing to hold Maelstrom's gaze but unable to conceal the gleam of apprehension in his eyes. "Using a newly qualified agent may have been a mistake," he admitted. "Had to be someone expendable of course - and experienced operatives would have had more questions about what Saira was doing to them - but you know what these young bucks are like, old boy. Always desperate to make a name for themselves by any means possible. Killing the Red Rogue would absolutely have earned them one."

"It certainly would," Maelstrom dipped his head in acknowledgement. "But, knowing what these 'young bucks' are like, I do seem to recall giving Carnevale explicit instructions not to do so. ACME was the target of this operation after all. And it is somewhat unusual for recent graduates to defy Faculty orders, wouldn't you agree? Not unless they thought that they would have the backing of a Faculty member. And it would have been most presumptuous for someone to act on the assumption that they already had a seat at the table."

For nearly a full minute, the wind and the low, soporific burble of the tank's filtration system were the only sound. Roundabout's smile had frozen as the two men regarded each other through twelve feet of luminous water and translucent jellyfish bodies - a rat facing a viper. Maelstrom let him fret a little longer before finally breaking the silence.

"Of course, it's entirely possible that Carnevale disregarded my instructions after all," he said as he circled around the tank back to Roundabout, patting the smaller man's shoulder with a reassurance that both of them knew to be feigned. "Operatives with an overinflated sense of their own importance are prone to that kind of foolishness. Perhaps we should be discussing London instead. I believe Dr. Bellum has some input on how that particular caper spun out."

"Yes, well... well..." Roundabout spluttered as Maelstrom's hand tightened to a vice grip on his shoulder. "Entirely Sandiego's fault, and that traitor Shadowsan. I was only in custody briefly thanks to those splendid Cleaner fellows and..."

"You know the rules, Nigel," Maelstrom said, tsking. "Failure is forgivable, capture is not."

"You still need me. VILE needs me," Sweat was beading on Roundabout's forehead as he spoke. "You need experienced operatives more than ever with the academy gone. And besides, I have that splendid caper in Beijing lined up - that should certainly cover a great deal of our losses. Losses that Carmen Sandiego is responsible for. Had Carnevale managed to kill the wretched girl it would still have been to our advantage, even if it wasn't the desired outcome."

"That is true." Maelstrom didn't let go of Roundabout's shoulder as he continued. "Though the target in Beijing will not be in place for another six months. Something about the anniversary of his wife's death, was it not?" He made a contemptuous sound at the sentimentality of it all. "I'm sure someone else could familiarise themselves with the caper in that time." This time Maelstrom's smile had all the warmth of an Arctic shark. Just as it seemed that Roundabout was about to break under his pale gaze, Maelstrom let him go, shrugging. "Or perhaps you could use this time to reflect on how terribly disappointed the Faculty would be if the Beijing caper should end like the London one. But who knows, perhaps with a success you might redeem yourself. Not being able to have a majority vote on Faculty matters is growing very tiresome." He stepped away from Roundabout, returning his attention to the tank. "You are dismissed, Nigel. I believe the Cleaners have prepared quarters for you."

"Yes, very good," Roundabout's voice shook as he replied, stepping towards the door with an expediency that was almost an outright run. Maelstrom waited until he was halfway through the door before calling him back.

"Oh, and Nigel?" The look on Roundabout's face as he reluctantly turned to look at Maelstrom almost made up for the mess of the ACME caper. "Should you ever act against the wishes of the Faculty again, it's not Bellum and her devices that you'll need to worry about." This time Maelstrom's smile was genuine as he tapped one long finger against the glass wall of the tank. "I rather think you'll be going for a swim instead."

Roundabout fled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me checking my notes for this fic: "let's see here... 'angst, angst, suffering, angst, victimise Roundabout.' Oooo, I like that idea!" Also, Coach Brunt/The Mechanic is my real OTP for this show. And I freaking love the Faculty, which I can now say without reservation because Roundabout never actually got a seat on it. Ha.
> 
> Martin Austin Ruane AKA 'Giant Haystacks' was a famous British wrestler in the 1970s and 80s. At 6'11" he would actually have been taller than Coach Brunt (who is canonically 6'2" which I think is bullshit) but IMO she would absolutely beat him in a fight.
> 
>  _Chironex fleckeri_ is a species of box jellyfish native to the coasts of Australia, New Guinea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. It is known as the 'sea wasp' though that name has also been used to refer to other species of jellyfish as well. And it is incredibly venomous - and also nearly transparent which makes it very hard to spot in its natural habitat. Their sting reportedly feels like being branded with a red-hot iron and in some cases people who are stung by them really do die before reaching the shore. Which is a pretty awful way to go.


	10. Chapter 10

The last thing she remembered was the cold. It had overtaken everything else - the pain, Carmen's distant voice, the suffocating tightness in her chest. The cold had washed over them all like a tidal wave and swept her unresisting body away with it. She was sinking into a dark sea but felt no particular alarm or fear, no instinct to struggle against it. She let herself drift instead, an invisible current gently pulling her along. Flashes of memories rippled before her like bubbles rising to an impossibly distant surface high above, disjointed and fragmentary - some warm and some even colder than her surroundings.

 _"This seat taken?"_ A warm smile. Auburn hair. The gentle rocking of a train carriage, sun streaming through the windows.

 _"You always were a disappointment, Julia."_ Cold words, colder eyes. Outside the house in London, the door closed against her.

 _"Promise me you won't go back to that house..."_ The beach on Lantau Island. The fragrance of the orchid trees. An arm around her shoulders, motherly but not her mother.

 _"Trust you, huh?"_ Cold eyes again, but these grey ones cut deeper than her father's ever had. For the first time, she resisted, trying to push the memory away. Trying to fix on something - anything - that would banish the overwhelming guilt.

 _"I've, uh, never actually done this before."_ The same voice as before, the same eyes, but now they were warm. And nervous. It had made her smile, and she could remember cupping that face between her hands. Could remember the heat of Carmen's cheeks - this time _she_ was the one who was blushing. Could remember kissing her, soft and slow.

"That's all right, neither have I." That was what she'd said then, and she echoed it now. But the words faded the moment they left her lips, melting away into the darkness like a shadow. Warmth couldn't exist here. She clutched at it all the same, groping through the cold fog as she tried to recapture that feeling of warm skin against her palms. A warm body straddling hers. She didn't want to be cold. Didn't want to keep drifting away. But there was nothing to catch on to. Nothing to brace against. And she was tiring quickly.

A hand on her wrist, the fingertips rough and calloused from years of needlework. Not pulling her, but keeping her anchored. The scent of the orchid trees, stronger now. _Bauhinia blakeana. The Hong Kong orchid tree. Joeng zi ging._ She remembered winding her braided hair around her left hand, once, twice, three times then shearing it off at the nape of her neck with dressmaker's scissors. Symbolic.

_promise me you won't go back to that house_

A face swam out of the darkness, actually there this time and not just a fading memory. The features were so similar to her mother's, but here the hard angles and sharp lines were softer. Gentler. Warmer. Dark eyes like her own, looking at her the way she'd often wished her parents would. The last time she'd seen that face it had been hollowed by long illness and raddled with pain. Now it was as she remembered from her childhood.

" _Ji maa_?" Her voice shook, disbelieving, but her aunt nodded with the soft smile she knew so well. Suddenly her feet seemed to find purchase against a solid surface as the current pulling at her began to fade. There was a strange pressure on the right side of her chest that seemed to be building like a thundercloud, heavy with the promise of pain. She didn't care, rushing forwards into her aunt's arms instead. For a moment she thought she felt those arms around her, then everything faded into a featureless grey haze.

* * *

Sound was the first thing to filter back into Julia's world. At first it was only a repetitive electronic beep somewhere near her head, but gradually that was underscored by a hissing thump. The noise came each time she breathed in. So did the dull throb that flared across her chest, starting on the right but then running in a distinct line across her ribs, just below her breasts. It was that persistent ache which drew her back to consciousness, her eyes flickering open briefly to see only a blur of white and grey. This wasn't her apartment... no, she was in New York, wasn't she? But it wasn't the hotel either. Julia had a vague recollection of dreaming about Aunt Meiying, but before that... before that...

_For a moment Julia was frozen to the spot and could only stare at the bright red dot that had appeared on Carmen's shoulder. Then, as it snaked up the other woman's neck, she realised exactly what it was and started sprinting towards her with a shout of warning._

The memory made Julia jerk as if it had somehow burned her, then cry out reflexively... but she made no sound, her breath rushing noiselessly out through her throat instead. Then it flooded back in, relentlessly filling her chest despite her efforts to speak. Something was in her mouth, blocking it, and instinctively Julia tried to reach for it only to discover that her right arm wouldn't move. As she raised her left instead, something pushed it back down.

Now there were dark shapes moving around her; shapeless blurs of blue and green making odd, distorted sounds as if they were underwater. Or was she the one who was underwater? Julia tried to focus on them but the effort made her feel so nauseous that she had to close her eyes again. She felt a light touch on her face, then one of her eyelids was lifted. There was a flash of bright light that seemed to spear directly into her brain and her breath hissed out in a soundless yelp of protest. Then, for a horrifying moment, she couldn't breathe, unconsciously fighting against the air that was being forced into her lungs as she tried to exhale.

_...too much pressure in her chest, not enough room for breath, Carmen was saying something but she couldn't make it out... on some level she knew it was important but she couldn't hear properly and Carmen was too far away..._

Julia managed to bring her left arm up again, her fingertips grazing something with a ridged surface. But as she tried to take hold of it - dimly realising that it felt like a tube of some kind - another hand closed over hers and gently but firmly pulled it away. This time they didn't let go. Opening her eyes gingerly in case there was another flash of light, Julia looked down to see a dark-skinned hand holding hers. Her gaze groggily followed the arm it belonged to upwards.

The features of the black woman standing over her were fuzzy, but so was everything else that was more than a few feet away. _What happened to my glasses?_ There were other figures moving around her, but focusing on them was hard. The woman was easier because she was stationary, looking down at her as her mouth moved. Julia guessed that she was speaking to her and made an effort to listen, the words slowly taking shape as she concentrated.

"...on a ventilator so you gotta leave the tube alone, honey." It helped that the woman was speaking slowly and clearly, though Julia could still make out her strong Brooklyn accent. She was wearing a matching blue tunic and pants - scrubs, Julia recognised. _Wait, is this a hospital?_ Now that she thought about it, she had a vague memory of Carmen saying something about a hospital - the thief's face hovering over her own, a loose strand of auburn hair tumbling down to brush her cheek. Carmen. What had happened to Carmen?

It wasn't until she tried to sit that Julia discovered just how badly she was hurt. She'd been vaguely aware of dull aches, but the moment she tried to move they exploded into white-hot flares of agony across the right side of her chest and back, burning across her ribs and sternum like a saw blade. Her vision greyed out as she slumped back, hearing only a high-pitched whine of white noise as the breath went out of her... only to be forced back in, sending electric crackles of pain through her chest as her ribcage expanded. Her throat convulsed, trying to scream, but again she made no sound. Trying to breathe shallowly made no difference - the air inexorably filled her lungs and trying to resist it only made her choke as she was blinded by tears of pain and frustration.

Voices babbled around her - one of them the woman who still held her hand - but Julia couldn't tell what they were saying. Then another voice, from further away, but this one was familiar. Male. Anxious. She knew who that voice belonged to, mentally groping for the name that went with it. Another hand took hold of her left arm and then it began to tingle, the sensation seeming to spread from just above her elbow to her entire body. Slowly, her muscles began to relax - she hadn't even noticed that they had tensed - and the pain in her chest began to dull. Her breathing remained artificially deep and even, but Julia had forgotten why she was trying to fight it anyway.

Blinking up at the ceiling with placid disinterest as pain faded to a vague discomfort, Julia felt her hand being placed back down by her side. The sheets beneath it felt stiff and starchy, not what she'd have expected from a four-star hotel... but she wasn't _in_ a hotel any more, was she? No, this was a hospital, and she was here because... because...

_...for one awful moment the red dot was squarely between Carmen's eyes but then it vanished as Julia charged into her with all her weight, making her stumble backwards. There was a crack, sharp and distinct even over the sounds of the city, then something smashed into Julia's back with merciless force. Her entire body seemed to go numb as the breath was driven out of her by the impact - there was a moment of intense pressure and heat in her chest and then the pressure vanished but the heat remained, a burning line through her body. Warmth spreading across her chest and back. A strong arm looped around her waist, lifting her, and the heat exploded into a raging inferno. She screamed._

_I was shot_ , Julia realised, with muted surprise. Someone had tried to kill Carmen, and she'd pushed her to the ground. The would-be assassin must have fired anyway, missing Carmen and hitting her instead. They'd been aiming for Carmen's head. If they'd hit... Julia pushed that thought away; it hurt even through the comfortable numbness she'd sunk into. She was sure that Carmen had been okay afterward - she could remember the other woman talking to her, just not the words.

"Julia?" That voice again. The familiar one. Shifting her gaze towards the source seemed to take extra effort, as if there were weights in her eyes. By contrast, raising her head felt far easier; it seemed to bob unsteadily on her neck. Her vision swam drunkenly for a moment, then cleared as best it could without the aid of her glasses.

She knew the man standing over her. The sight of him evoked feelings of exasperation, memories of an arrogant smirk and patronising contempt. _Like my father._ But he wasn't her father, and the expression on his face was one she'd never seen there before - concern and distress. As was the tearful smile he gave her as their eyes met. _Devineaux._

"You can hear me, yes?" Devineaux's hands fidgeted as he grasped the rail at the side of the bed, fingers tapping anxiously against it. "I know you will not be able to speak while you have..." He gestured towards his mouth and neck, obviously searching for the word. "...the _thing_ , _le respirateur_ , you know?"

Julia nodded - her head still feeling far too light - wondering what Devineaux was doing here. Was that why Carmen wasn't there? Were ACME using her as bait for a trap? She tried to remember what had happened at the meeting, vaguely recalling Carmen's furious accusations about her father's death. Everything after that was a blur of panic and pain. But if Devineaux was lying in wait for the thief he wasn't doing a good job of it by standing here talking to her, his eyes on his hands.

"I am glad that you are awake," he continued, his voice uncharacteristically gentle and soft. Was he actually trying to keep his voice down for once? "You were gravely wounded, I thought I might never get the chance to tell you that I am sorry for how badly I treated you. And that you were always right about _La Femme Rouge_. I should have listened to you."

 _Is Chase Devineaux actually apologising to me?_ Julia wondered if whatever painkillers she'd been given were making her hallucinate - or maybe this was a dream. Without thinking, she tried to reply only to be surprised once again when no sound came out. If she was dreaming, surely she'd be able to speak. Devineaux looked at her then quickly looked away, stung, as Julia realised she was frowning in frustration at her inability to communicate.

"I know, it is not worth much to say that now." Obviously, Devineaux thought Julia's expression had been aimed at him. "I treated you as a foolish child when I should have treated you as an equal. I mocked your interests. I was intimidated by your intelligence so I disregarded your..." He hesitated, struggling for the right word. "Your _perspicacité_." Julia knew that he meant 'insight'. "Perhaps if I had listened to you earlier, together we could have persuaded the Chief to trust Sandiego. And then you would not have been hurt. Forgive me."

This time when Devineaux looked at her, Julia was ready and nodded unsteadily. No matter how much her former partner had frustrated her, she'd believed he was a good man at heart. His face split into a wide, genuine smile in response - the first time she'd ever seen him smile without any trace of arrogance. She tried to return it as best she could, acutely aware of the plastic obstruction in her mouth.

Devineaux's smile vanished abruptly as he slapped the heel of his hand against his forehead in sudden realisation. "Agh, _crétin_! Here I am talking about myself when you must be wondering about Sandiego, yes?" He saw her eyes widen and raised a hand to forestall any questions - clearly having forgotten that she wouldn't be able to ask any. "She is well, do not worry. ACME is no longer pursuing her. She would be here with you now, but believed it would be safer for you if she were not. She feared that her presence here would make you a target for her enemies - _our_ enemies - so she left. She did not want you to think she'd abandoned you."

The relief that flooded through Julia at Devineaux's words was almost as powerful as whatever drug she'd been injected with earlier. Maybe that drug was also why it was so easy to believe him - but Devineaux had never really been one for subterfuge. Carmen was safe, and not hurt or captured. Julia hadn't expected her to stay - Carmen never did. She couldn't. Spending too much time in one place only put the thief in danger. Julia had known that from the very beginning, so any disappointment she felt whenever Carmen left was just selfish. Her mother had always said she was selfish, hadn't she?

"Ms Sandiego also asked that I give you this." Devineaux had reached into his shirt pocket and retrieved what first appeared to be a small, red gem. "She said you would know what it is." Julia did - as soon as Devineaux held it out towards her she recognised it as one of Carmen's earrings. The ones she used to communicate with her team. "I am guessing it is more than just jewelry," Devineaux continued, glancing at the ruby stud doubtfully. "But I do not know how it works, so I hope you do."

Julia didn't, but had seen Carmen use it often enough to be able to make an educated guess - the thief touched it whenever sending or receiving a message. Though how she would know if it was tuned to the right frequency, or even switched on, Julia had no idea. What was more important to her right now was that it was something of Carmen's. She tipped her neck to one side, wincing as the movement made her head swim, and turned her left ear towards Devineaux, hoping he would understand what she wanted.

"You want me to put it on you?" Clearly he did, but Julia nodded anyway just in case. With surprising delicacy, Devineaux leaned down to set the earring in place. There was a slight pressure as he fastened the two halves together, but it wasn't painful. For something so small, the earring felt surprisingly heavy. As Devineaux moved back, Julia raised her left hand to touch it - only managing to grope unsteadily at the side of her face and neck at first until she finally found her jawline and followed that to her ear. She could feel facets narrowing into a point on both sides, but nothing that felt like a switch. It didn't really matter - it was a link to Carmen in any case. Her arm felt heavy, so Julia let it drop. It fell across her upper chest, sending a throb of pain across her ribs in protest, but the sensation was muted.

A door opened, and Julia heard the voice of the woman who'd spoken to her earlier - only now the tone was sharper. She couldn't catch the words, but they seemed to be aimed at Devineaux as he shifted guiltily, looking in the direction of the sound. " _Oui, madame_ ," he said contritely, looking just as uncomfortable as he would if it had been the Chief scolding him. "My apologies, I will leave her alone." The door closed, and he looked back at Julia. "I am to let you sleep," he explained, looking suitably chastened. "While the painkillers are still working. I will still be here though, until the evening. Then Zari will take my place."

 _Zari?_ Apparently ACME were guarding her. Julia would have felt more uneasy about that revelation if Devineaux hadn't told her they were no longer trying to capture Carmen. Maybe they really were concerned for her safety, even though she'd resigned months ago. The thought was strangely comforting. _I don't even want to sleep_ , Julia thought as she closed her eyes.

" _Jules?"_

Julia's eyes snapped open at the sound of her nickname - blinking in surprise as she realised that the room had become dim. She was sure that she'd only closed them a minute ago, but now the overhead lights had been turned down low, and what illumination they did provide was now a warm, golden glow instead of stark, cold white. Julia could feel her chest throbbing again, the pain beating out from the upper right like rays from a malignant sun. _That's where I was shot._ She guessed that was why her right arm was immobilized, but it didn't explain the sharp ache below her breasts.

It took conscious effort not to fight against the ventilator, pain lancing through her ribs as her chest automatically rose and fell. Guessing that she had dreamed Carmen's voice, Julia closed her eyes again and willed herself to go back to sleep. Hopefully then she wouldn't be able to feel anything.

Something buzzed at her ear, then the voice spoke again. " _Jules, are you there_?" It was definitely Carmen. There was a short pause, then a curse. " _Shit, Devineaux did say you wouldn't be able to answer. But I hope you can hear me all the same."_

"Well, you woke her up, so good job." Recognising the voice beside her immediately, Julia looked up to see Zari standing over her, her face impassive. "You can hear me, right? Not you, Argent," she added quickly. "Sandiego."

" _Zari?_ " Carmen sounded cautious, but not outright hostile. Neither did Zari for that matter, which was an odd development. " _Eavesdropping, huh?_ "

"Kind of hard not to, even in New York an ICU isn't very loud after 9pm," the agent replied dryly. "I'd ask how you managed to plant a radio on Argent, but it's probably best if I don't." Concern flicked briefly across Zari's expression as she glanced at Julia, her gaze penetrating. "You can hear her, right?" she asked, her tone a fraction softer than it had been when she spoke to Carmen. Julia nodded, grimacing as the movement somehow managed to aggravate the pain in her chest. "She can hear you," Zari announced, presumably for Carmen's benefit. "You've got ten minutes, then I'm calling the nurse. I'll try not to listen." With that, the agent turned around and walked out of Julia's line of sight.

" _It doesn't matter if Zari's listening or not_ ," Carmen said, the earring vibrating faintly as she spoke. " _So don't worry. I... oh **god** Jules, I'm so **sorry**_." Julia heard the other woman take a deep, ragged breath, her voice thickening. " _It's my fault you got hurt, it was me they were after. You saved my life. I... I want to say thank you but I also want to yell at you for putting yourself in harm's way, isn't that crazy_? _But thank you. And don't ever do that again_." It was difficult for Julia to tell if Carmen was laughing or sobbing. It could have been both. Either way, it took a moment for the thief to compose herself before she went on.

" _I don't know how much you've been told already, but it was VILE who tried to kill me. Who shot you. They infiltrated ACME, that's how they knew where I'd be."_ Julia's eyes widened at that, gasping silently. VILE in control of ACME was a horrible thought. " _The Chief told me about it afterward. I'm not exactly working with ACME, but we're on the same side. You can trust Zari and Devineaux though, they're definitely not VILE operatives in disguise. They're there to keep you safe. Because I can't be."_ Carmen's voice cracked. _"If there's still VILE operatives in ACME, they'd find out I was with you, and that would put you in danger. So I had to leave. I didn't want to. You were hurt so badly and I had to just abandon you there in the hospital. I miss you."_ Julia heard the other woman take a deep, shuddering breath. _"I love you."_

Julia's breath momentarily caught in her throat. A faint, hazy memory stirred in her mind - Carmen saying those words in her ear while they were somewhere dark and cold, but that felt more like a dream than something which had actually happened. This time she definitely wasn't dreaming. Julia automatically tried to respond, her face twisting into an angry scowl as no words came out. She bit down hard on the tube in her mouth out of sheer spite, but it made no impression on the hard plastic shielding it. She had no way of telling Carmen how much those words meant to her and almost wished Zari was still standing beside her to act as an interpreter.

 _"I know you can't say it back."_ Carmen sounded like she was trying to hold back tears, which only increased Julia's frustration at her inability to communicate. " _It's okay. You've told me before. I know you love me. But I never told you. Because I was afraid I'd ruin things. I... I've never felt this way about anyone and I was worried that if I tried to tell you how I feel then I'd do it wrong. Stupid, huh?"_ As Carmen took another deep breath, Julia heard a sob catch in her throat. Her own eyes started to sting in sympathy. _"World's greatest thief can steal the world's greatest treasures, but can't say 'I love you' to her..._ " There was a pause as the other woman hesitated. " _Girlfriend? That's right, isn't it?"_

"Okay, time's up so..." Zari's voice broke off as Julia turned her head to look at her, raising an eyebrow as she saw the tears streaming down Julia's face. For once the agent actually looked worried. "Is it the pain?" she asked urgently, moving to one side of the bed and putting her hand on a panel in the wall. Julia shook her head, her face flushing in embarrassment. Zari's expression hardened as she leaned closer to the injured woman. "What the hell did you just tell her, Sandiego?"

" _It's nothing you need to... ugh, screw it,"_ Carmen sighed. " _I wanted to know if Julia and I are girlfriends._ "

The pause that followed was incredibly awkward. Zari blinked, both eyebrows appearing over the frame of her glasses. She removed them a moment later, pinching the bridge of her nose between forefinger and thumb and looking as if she'd rather be anywhere else in the world at this particular moment in time. "...oh you cannot be serious..." she muttered to herself, then put her glasses back on, adjusted them, and cleared her throat. "Well?" she asked, looking at Julia. "I am not repeating that ridiculous question, you heard her." Julia nodded, wincing as sharp pain shot through her chest. "Argent says yes," Zari reported. "Satisfied?"

" _Yes_ ," Carmen replied, with a tearful-sounding laugh. " _Thanks, Zari_."

The noise Zari made in response suggested that she would prefer not to discuss the issue any further, or ever again. "Whatever. I'm getting the nurse now." She jabbed her thumb against the panel that her hand had been on earlier, then moved away from the bed.

" _I'd better go before Zari confiscates that earring_." Julia couldn't see Carmen's smile but she could hear it in the thief's voice, even though it was still catching in her throat. " _I just needed you to know why I'm not there. And to tell you I love you. You're one of the best things in my life, Jules. I needed you to know that. I'll talk to you again tomorrow._ " There was a faint click, then silence.

 _I love you too_ , Julia thought. The pain in her chest didn't seem so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Agent Zari: "what the fuck is this, middle school? Fourteen year-olds have this shit figured out!" (tbf most fourteen year-olds were not raised on a secret island base for criminals)
> 
> I'm using the Jyutping romanisation system for Cantonese in this fic, which was developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993. It's one of the most common phonetic systems for writing Cantonese using roman letters instead of Cantonese characters. And also has a lot of online resources which is useful for someone who doesn't actually speak Cantonese. (me)
> 
>  _Bauhinia × blakeana_ , commonly known as the Hong Kong orchid tree or _joeng zi ging_ in Cantonese, is the national flower of Hong Kong. It's also not an orchid, it's a tree - but the large, fragrant flowers it produces look like certain species of orchid. The flower is used as a symbol on Hong Kong's flag and coinage and there is a large golden statue of one outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. It's actually a hybrid of two other species of Bauhinia - _Bauhinia variegata_ and _Bauhinia purpurea_ \- and is normally sterile, propagated by grafts and cuttings instead of seeds.
> 
> And yes, I am aware that there is a photo of Julia with a woman that is assumed to be her mother in her office in S4. For the purposes of this fic the woman in that picture is her aunt, not her mother.


	11. Chapter 11

Although Carmen had been in many, many places where she shouldn't have been - usually illegally, often via forced entry - she had never felt quite so _wrong_ about being somewhere than she did at this present moment. Not even when she'd been forced to steal for the VILE Faculty. And right now she wasn't in a deserted museum after midnight or sneaking through an archaeological dig site. Instead, she was standing in Julia's apartment with the early afternoon sun streaming through the windows of the lounge. It wasn't even like she'd never been here while Julia was out before... the wrongness came from being here while the other woman was in hospital several thousand miles away.

But no matter how strange it felt, Carmen wanted to make sure that everything was taken care of here before throwing herself back into the game. There was comfort in doing things as mundane as checking that the windows were closed and the water was off - Julia had only been planning to be away for the weekend, after all. Now there was no telling how long she'd be absent for. Carmen didn't want her coming home to burst pipes or a break-in - well, besides the one that was currently taking place. There were only a couple of houseplants, all of them hardy types that didn't require much care - a necessity when their owner spent so much of her time travelling. Carmen had moved them together and set them up with an automatic irrigation system in any case, making sure there was enough water in the reservoir to last at least a couple of weeks.

It hadn't taken Carmen long to find the details of Julia's letting agent and utility companies - a simple search of the desk in her bedroom had turned up a file marked 'apartment' which contained copies of the lease and utility bills going back two years in addition to home insurance and French residency tax charges. However, after several phone calls, Carmen had discovered that transferring the charges to her own account was nowhere near as easy as she'd imagined. The letting agent had refused to give her any information on the account; the electric and phone companies hadn't been much better. Apparently offering money in return for no questions asked only worked with criminals.

Carmen was wondering if she'd have any more success if she called back pretending to be Julia when her replacement comm chimed softly for the first time in over two days. She reached up to tap it with a relieved sigh. "Player, is that you?" Carmen hoped so - she'd missed his constant presence far more than his skills.

" _Yeah, it's me_ ," Player replied quietly. " _Gotta keep my voice down, it's like 5am here but I wanted to check in now that I know my mom's not listening._ "

"I am so sorry about that," Carmen sighed, slumping down onto Julia's couch. "I should have told you what was happening as soon as-"

" _It's not your fault, Red_ ," Player said, trying to sound firm despite the faint quiver in his voice. " _Yeah, okay, so thinking my best friend was dead was kinda... the worst experience of my life so far. But you had other things on your mind. How's Julia?"_

"Still on a ventilator but she woke up. I spoke to her yesterday..." Trying to work out the relative timezones was hard; Carmen had moved through so many in the last 48 hours that she was having trouble remembering what time it was in her current location, let alone elsewhere. "Evening? Well, it was evening where I was anyway. And it was more like I spoke _at_ her - the important thing is that she's awake and responsive. But she's going to be in hospital for at least another week."

" _About that - I kinda... looked at her medical records,"_ There was a faint ruffling sound as Player spoke, suggesting that he was running one hand through his hair apprehensively. Carmen didn't say anything – she guessed that Player thought she might react badly to that particular invasion of privacy, but truth be told she had been considering asking him to do that for her anyway. After a moment, Player continued, sounding slightly defensive despite Carmen's silence. " _Mostly because she's in hospital in the US so if she doesn't have health insurance then medical treatment gets crazy expensive crazy quick. Makes me glad I live in communist Canada."_

Carmen's eyes widened as that sank in. "God, I didn't even think of that. How crazy are we talking? With what we've stolen from VILE we should have more than enough to cover it, right?"

" _Yes, but turns out we don't need to worry about it_ ," Player replied. " _ACME's already taken care of it_."

"Oh." Carmen wasn't sure how to feel about that revelation. The last thing she wanted was to be in ACME's debt, but she doubted that had been the reason for their altruism. "Well, the Chief did seem to feel responsible for what happened. Maybe this is her way of trying to make amends."

" _Maybe_ ," Player agreed, then hesitated. " _Did you get a chance to talk to her at all? About your dad I mean."_

"Yes," Carmen admitted, sinking down to lie on the sofa and gazing up at the ceiling. "She apologised and told me it was the biggest mistake she'd ever made. And that she had no idea that my dad had a partner or a child, so there's another dead end in the search for my mom."

" _Do you believe her_?" Despite the question, Player didn't sound sceptical - more like he was surprised at Carmen's apparent lack of doubt.

"I actually do," Carmen sighed. "Shadowsan did tell me that she looked horrified at what she'd done at the time and everything she said corroborates that. But... there was something else she said that bothers me."

" _About your dad_?" There was an edge of uncertainty to Player’s voice as he asked – as if he felt he was overstepping a boundary despite being her oldest friend.

“Yeah...” She paused, taking a deep breath. “It’s just... I still don’t know anything about him except that he was VILE Faculty and, yeah, he was trying to leave. But he was Faculty for a long time. And the Chief told me that when she was sent to arrest him she’d been warned that he was armed and dangerous. It just makes me wonder if...” Carmen’s voice trailed off uncertainly, almost hoping that Player would guess what she was thinking and finish the sentence for her. Putting her suspicions into words felt like a betrayal – it would be easier to confront if someone else did it instead. But Player didn’t say anything, quietly waiting for her to continue instead.

Carmen braced herself, then went on “You know why I left VILE, Player. There was a line I didn’t want to cross. But my father was part of VILE for years. He was Faculty. I was so wrapped up in wanting to confront the Chief for killing him that I never thought... what if _he_ had killed people?”

There was the sound of a deep, resigned sigh from the other end of the line and Carmen realised that this suspicion must have already crossed Player’s mind. Of course it had. He was smarter than the rest of Team Red put together – including herself. “ _I guess that’s possible,_ ” he began, his words carefully neutral. “ _But even if he did, that’s not on you. And besides, if he had then why wouldn’t the Chief have told you that_?”

That was the same slim hope that Carmen had found herself clinging to from the moment the realisation that Dexter Wolfe could have been a killer had hit her. “Yeah, I wondered that too, but then I thought maybe she just didn’t want to put that on me because I was worried about Julia.” The sympathy Carmen had seen in the woman’s eyes had been genuine, she was sure of that.

“ _I think she’d still have told you_ ,” Player replied. “ _Maybe not as justification or anything, but she did tell you he was considered armed and dangerous. Surely she’d have told you why unless she just didn’t know_.”

“The ACME files don’t say anything?” Carmen felt a little uneasy about asking – she knew Player had already gone over those in detail and would surely have noticed any mention of previous murders... but just hadn’t told her. Even if he was only trying to spare her feelings, the thought that he’d keep something like that from her was deeply unsettling.

“ _No_ ,” Player’s response was immediate. “ _The incident report was the only thing there that related to your dad, and I sent you everything connected with it_.”

“But if that’s all they had, then how did they know where to find him?” Carmen frowned up at the ceiling – something was definitely missing here. “And how would the Chief know he was armed and dangerous? ACME must have another file on him.”

There was a rustle of movement across the comm, suggesting that Player was shaking his head. “ _That’s the thing, Red – I don’t think they do_ ,” he explained. “ _ACME didn’t exist then, remember? The Chief was just Inspector Fraser of Interpol – and it’s Interpol who’d have the file on your dad_.”

Carmen sat up sharply, feeling a momentary burst of hope. “Do you think you can get it?” she asked, trying to keep the excitement out of her voice. “Maybe it would have something that could help me find my mom.”

“ _Iiiiii... don’t think that’ll be possible_ ,” Player admitted with a rueful sigh. “ _There’s some things that can’t be hacked no matter how good you are_.”

“Yeah,” Carmen tried to keep the disappointment from her voice as her shoulders sagged. “I mean, it’s Interpol. They must have better security than ACME and we don’t have an easy way to plant another-”

“ _Oh, it’s not that I can’t get into Interpol’s systems_ ,” he said quickly, with more than a little indignation. “ _They’re way easier than ACME. The problem is that the file’s so old that it’s not on their electronic records. I can’t hack into it because the only copy’s on paper somewhere in their archives. All I know is that it could be somewhere in an archive box somewhere in a basement somewhere in Lyons... if it wasn’t lost or damaged in the meantime. And besides_ ,” Player went on, his voice gentler now. “ _The Chief would have read it through if she was on that case. If it said anything about your mom, she would have known_.”

For a brief moment, Carmen considered taking a train to Lyons anyway, breaking into Interpol headquarters, and searching for the file herself. But that would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. A haystack that was in a secure, monitored location which was also being patrolled by armed guards specifically there to stop people from searching said haystack. And Player was right – the Chief would have known if the file said anything about her mother. Carmen didn’t think the woman would have lied to her about that.

“ _Maybe you could ask Shadowsan about your dad when you get back to San Diego_?” Player offered. “ _He’d probably be more likely to know anyway since your dad taught him_.”

“Which is a seriously weird feeling when I think about it,” Carmen commented. “Like, did he teach me things my dad taught him? And how do you know I’m not in San Diego?” she added with feigned annoyance.

“ _Because I’m just **that** good_.” She could hear the smirk in Player’s voice as he spoke. “ _Well, that and the GPS in your comm says you’re in Poitiers so I’m guessing you’re at Julia’s_.”

“Yeah,” Carmen confessed, with a long exhalation. “I wanted to make sure everything was okay here since Jules might not be back for a while. I’m having problems with the bills though – her letting agent and the utility companies won’t talk to me. And I’m trying to give them money, so I thought it would be easy!”

“ _Yeah, but the EU’s got some really strict privacy laws_ ,” Player explained. Carmen heard his chair creak as he leaned back into it, a clear sign that he was thinking. “ _Not quite Switzerland, but almost. Do you know how she normally pays them? It should say in the lease and on the bills_.”

“Uhhhhh...” Carmen quickly flicked through the paperwork. “Utilities all say ‘ _prélèvement automatique_ ’, the lease says ‘ _virement permanent_ ’. That’s ‘automatic deduction’ and ‘regular transfer’, right?”

“ _Yeah, those are both types of automatic payment, which makes things way easier_ ,” he replied. “ _Do you have Julia’s bank details_?”

“Let me check.” Going back through to the bedroom, Carmen opened the same desk drawer she’d found the ‘apartment’ file in. There was a second one marked ‘finances’ which contained quarterly bank statements, payslips, and copies of previous tax returns. Carmen had to smile at how methodical it all was. “Yes. Do you need them?”

Carmen heard Player inhale as if he were about to reply, then he paused. “ _Well, I was thinking I could just set up an automatic transfer into Julia’s account to cover the debits..._ ” he said doubtfully. “ _But maybe it would be better if you just paid cash into her account at an ATM every month instead. No paper trail that way. Electronic paper that is. You know what I mean.”_

“That’s probably a better idea,” Carmen could feel herself nodding, even though she knew Player couldn’t see her. “I don’t want anyone tracing the payments back to me. Thanks, Player.” She hesitated for a moment, then went on. “I told the rest of the crew about me and Jules. I didn’t want to keep it secret anymore.”

“ _And_?” From the tone of his voice, it was clear that what Player meant was ‘finally’.

“They already knew. I know you didn’t tell them,” she added quickly before Player could protest his innocence. “They guessed. Months ago. They just didn’t say anything.”

“ _And was Shadowsan disappointed?_ ” Player prompted, obviously aware that it was a rhetorical question.

“No,” Carmen smiled faintly. “He said he’d never disapprove of something that made me happy.” The sound Player made in response suggested that it was just as well for Shadowsan that he had. “I asked him if I should break things off with Julia and do a fade – to keep her safe,” she added defensively before Player could interrupt. “And he said that would be no way to thank her for saving my life. And that I should let her decide whether being with me is too dangerous, not make that decision for her.”

“ _That’s actually really good advice, Red._ ” He sounded genuinely surprised, as if he’d been expecting Shadowsan to suggest she should end the relationship. Maybe that wasn’t surprising given that had been Carmen’s expectation as well. “ _You’re gonna listen to him, right?_ ”

“Yes.” The reply was both quick and simple. “I mean, I know Julia’s my girlfriend now and-”

“ _Wait_ ,” Player interrupted, sounding confused. “ _You didn’t know that before?_ ”

Carmen rolled her eyes, though she also felt herself blushing. “Now you sound like Zari. We hadn’t really talked about our relationship before and I didn’t want to just assume we were girlfriends. That’s understandable, right?”

Player gave a heavy sigh in response. “ _Seriously, Red. I know you were raised by VILE but you really never learned anything about how relationships work_?”

“The only thing VILE taught me about relationships was how to fake interest in a mark in order to take advantage of them,” Carmen muttered, with a resentment that wasn’t entirely aimed at Player. “You only tell someone you love them when you want something from them. I never wanted to seduce or exploit Julia, because what I feel for her is _real_. And all I want is just... for her to be in my life. I thought that using what I’d learned from VILE with her would ruin that. Turn it into a lie somehow.” Sighing, Carmen shook her head. She could never have admitted any of this to Zari, but Zari wasn’t her oldest friend. “Maybe that’s dumb but... I never really learned what you do with someone you actually love. I should have paid more attention to Le Chevre and El Topo, they seemed to have it figured out. And now I just wish that I’d told her I love her earlier. Because that is what you’re supposed to do. Guess I should have remembered that the best lies are based in truth, huh?”

“ _Oh_ ,” Player said lamely, clearly taken aback by the intensity in Carmen’s voice. “ _Well, now I feel like an asshole_ ,” he added jokingly, attempting to clear the air.

The oppressive silence between them lingered for a moment longer, then Carmen banished it with a shake of her head. “It’s okay,” she reassured him. “Mostly I just wonder what Julia must think of it all. Does she think it’s weird that I never asked her to be my girlfriend until now? God, what if she thinks I only asked her because she got shot saving my life, what kind of message would that send?”

“ _Well, you should be able to ask her later_.” The rattle of Player’s keyboard echoed across the comm. “ _Because she should be getting the tablet I sent to the hospital in... around six hours according to the parcel tracking. I set it up with our VPN and encrypted video channels so even if she can’t talk you’ll at least be able to see each other_.”

“I...” Carmen’s voice caught in her throat, a sensation that had become all too familiar over the past few days. “Thanks Player. That’s... honestly the best thing you could have done for me right now. Thank you.”

“ _It’s fine, really_.” Although Player was trying to sound nonchalant, it was obvious that he was embarrassed by Carmen’s sincere gratitude. “ _I just... thought it would be good for both of you. Especially Julia, since she’s stuck in hospital._ ”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate it,” Carmen said, glancing at her watch. “I’d better go if I want to catch my flight back, I don’t want to miss the connection in Atlanta.”

“ _No direct flight_?” Player asked, gently teasing. “ _Wow, you guys really can’t deal with travel arrangements without me, huh?_ ”

“I think it would be more accurate to just say we can’t deal with things in general without you, Player.” Carmen also kept her tone light, just like Player had done. She was pretty sure that neither of them wanted to end up crying over the comm again. “I should be back in San Diego around 8pm Pacific Standard. I’ll check in with you when I get to Atlanta.”

“ _Be careful, okay Red_?” That faint edge of anxiety in Player’s voice was new, but Carmen guessed there was good reason for it.

“I will. Talk soon.” With that, the comm went silent. Carmen stood there in the bedroom for a moment, still half-expecting Julia to walk through the door and start in surprise as she saw her waiting there. Carmen had pulled that trick a couple of times, just to see the look in the other woman’s eyes – surprise melting into a warm fondness that seemed to fill a hole in Carmen’s heart.

‘ _You’re going to miss your flight._ ’ As always, the internal voice of Black Sheep was snide and obnoxious – Tigress and Paper Star combined. With an irritated hiss of breath, Carmen checked the windows and appliances for the final time, then headed out the front door and locked it securely behind her.

* * *

Carmen hadn’t missed her flight after all, but it had been close and if she’d had luggage to check in then she definitely wouldn’t have made it. By the time she landed in San Diego she was nearly asleep on her feet, groggily reminding herself that it would be 5am in Poitiers right now while it was still only late evening of the previous day in California. She was going to have some serious jet lag to work through after this.

To her surprise, it was Shadowsan who was waiting for her at the airport instead of Zack. Carmen guessed that was in case she was being followed – Shadowsan would be far more likely to spot a tail than Zack would. As she got into the passenger seat, Carmen realised that if she wanted to talk to him about her father while nobody else was around, this was a perfect opportunity. If she was going to find out that Dexter Wolfe had been a killer, she’d rather do it alone.

Shadowsan didn’t speak as he put the car in gear and drove off, but that wasn’t unusual. Even now, with the VILE mask gone, Shadowsan never made small talk. He only spoke when he felt it was necessary. The silence was comforting, not awkward, and for a few moments Carmen wondered if it was a good idea to break it with a question she didn’t really want to be answered. She hadn’t felt this tense in her old teacher’s presence since she’d gone to confront him about Coach Brunt’s claim that he had murdered her father.

“You are troubled." The unexpected question made Carmen jump as Shadowsan spoke. "Is it about Julia?"

She thought about saying yes - it wouldn't even be lying. And if Carmen had really wanted to continue living in blissful ignorance, maybe she would have done. Instead, she took a deep breath as she composed herself. "Not right now, no," she said quietly, looking down at her hands folded in her lap. "It's actually about something I've wanted to ask you for a while now. Well, sometimes I want to ask, sometimes I don't but... it's something I have to know."

"About your father." It wasn't a question.

"Yes." Carmen raised her head and squared her shoulders in determination. It did nothing to relieve her apprehension. "You know I got the Chief to explain why she killed my father. And she didn't try to justify it or anything, but there was something she said that-" She broke off, hesitating, then decided to take the plunge. "She said that she'd been told he was armed and dangerous. I need to know... did my father ever kill anyone?" Carmen had thought that simply getting the question out would make her feel better. It didn't.

Shadowsan glanced towards her at the query, but there was no surprise in his eyes. Carmen realised he must have been expecting to be asked that question for a while. He didn’t reply right away – instead he slowed the car to a crawl before finding a spot to pull in at the curb. Obviously, it wasn’t a question he could answer in the short journey from the airport to the warehouse. Once the car had stopped Shadowsan turned to look at her, his face unreadable as he held her gaze for several seconds before finally replying. "That is a difficult question," he said quietly. "The simple answer is that I do not know."

"Then what's the complicated answer?" Carmen asked, her attempt to sound witty falling as woefully flat as her stilted grin.

"That I still do not know," Shadowsan continued. From the sympathy in his voice it was clear that he'd seen right through Carmen's feigned flippancy. "Dexter Wolfe was a master of stealth - of passing through with no trace. Killing leaves a trace, so I am certain he would have avoided it where possible. But..." He paused, fingers drumming uneasily on the steering wheel. "Your father was also a Faculty member for many years. And to be Faculty, one must be prepared to take actions that one might find... objectionable. I cannot say for sure that your father never killed someone. Neither can I say that he did not. But if he ever did, I am certain that he would have taken no pride in it. It was the thrill of the chase that he enjoyed. Not harming others."

“Guess I’ll never know then,” Carmen said quietly, then looked back down at her hands. She wasn’t sure whether she should be comforted by Shadowsan’s explanation or not. Being told that yes, her father had killed people would have been a hard thing to come to terms with but at least it would have been a definite answer instead of leaving her to wonder.

“Carmen.” The uncharacteristic gentleness in Shadowsan’s voice made her look back at him, seeing what almost looked like regret in his expression. It reminded her of the way he’d looked when he’d first told her about his estranged brother. “I have seen elements of your father in you, but only the positive ones. Courage. Daring. Skill. And you care for others, as he cared for you. But even so, _his crimes are not yours_. They are not yours to claim or atone for. And while I do not believe that your father was a killer, it makes no difference if he was. You are not Dexter Wolfe. You are Carmen Sandiego. That is all you need to be. Yourself.”

Carmen found that she couldn’t reply, her throat too tight. Both from Shadowsan’s words and what was undeniably pride in his eyes. For her. She managed to nod instead, her mouth quirking into a lopsided smile. Then the moment was over as Shadowsan cleared his throat uncomfortably and put the car back into gear.

“We should get back to base before Zack and Ivy start wondering where we are,” he said by way of explanation as the vehicle started moving. “They might assume we ran into trouble and come looking for us.”

Carmen was pretty sure neither of the siblings would do that without trying to get in touch first, but she let it slide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In an alternate universe:  
> \--Carmen-- You killed my father!  
> \--Chief-- Seriously? Your father killed _so many people_. You ever see the movie Ghost Ship? He pulled something like that at a high society ball once. I was one of the first on the crime scene and let me tell you, I did not sleep for a week and I was still smelling it six months later.  
> \--Carmen-- ...well now I feel like an asshole.
> 
> (if you have not seen the movie Ghost Ship, then it is a horror movie with an opening scene where an entire dancefloor of people are bisected by sharp wire. It's extremely gory but hey, at least Mythbusters proved it couldn't actually happen)
> 
> In another alternative universe:  
> \--Shadowsan-- Uh... is there a reason you didn't ask if _I've_ ever killed anyone?  
> \--Carmen-- Because that's a can of worms I really don't want to open right now.
> 
> This chapter would have been up sooner but I got distracted by AUs, which is pretty standard for me, even when I have no intention of ever writing said AUs. Ah well.


End file.
